With their “Science: It’s a girl thing” campaign, I’ll give the European Commission (EC) a bit of credit for trying to do something good: tap the power social media and online video to encourage girls and young women to get interested in science and scientific careers.

But they couldn’t have gotten off to a worse possible start.

The EC (which helps create and implement policies for the European Union) launched the campaign Friday morning with a teaser video featuring a male scientist, three teenage girls, and a lot of pink, lipstick and giggling. See for yourself:

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