The popular scrubs company FIGS recently offended women in medicine after releasing a new video that showed a woman reading a “Medical Terminology for Dummies” book upside down.
What happened?
FIGS — a startup company that sells scrubs for nurses and doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs) — released a new video that showed a woman in pink scrubs, wearing glasses and reading a “Medical Terminology for Dummies” book upside down.
- The video — originally posted to the company’s website — prompted backlash on Twitter from health care professionals.
Response:
The company deleted the video and later said it would donate $100,000 to American Osteopathic Association, an organization for DOs, according to CNN.
- “A lot of you guys have pointed out an insensitive video we had on our site — we are incredibly sorry for any hurt this has caused you, especially our female DOs (who are amazing!),” the company said in a statement. “FIGS is a female founded company whose only mission is to make you guys feel awesome.”
- “Our mission at FIGS has always been to empower medical professionals,” FIGS co-founders said in a statement to CNN. “Beyond a lapse in judgment, the bottom line is — our processes at FIGS failed. We are fixing that now. It will never happen again.”
Still, this didn’t stop people from speaking out
- “As a current DO student and future physician, the disrespect for female physicians and DOs exhibited in this ad (attached since it was removed from your website) is unforgivable. I will not be supporting FIGS , and encourage all those who purchase scrubs to join me.”
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Marie Thigpen, a neonatologist in North Carolina, said the video was “shameful,” according to NBC News.
- “Female doc here,” she wrote on the company’s Facebook page. “How many execs saw this and no one said a thing? How many in your company thought this would be a good ad? That’s the real problem. You don’t even realize that your ad is trash. Well female docs, nurses and staff have spending power and we will spend elsewhere.”