In a photograph of a little boy wearing a t-shirt with an image of Albert Einstein on the front, the caption for the household brand ad reads: “Little scholar... your future starts here.” So far, so good. Except, in the accompanying photo, a little girl wears a cream and pink sweater with the letter “G” and, bold as you like, her caption trills: “The social butterfly... talk of the playground.” No, it’s not a women’s magazine advert from the 1970s. This was Gap Kids 2016 and it was what we in the 21st century like to call an instant marketing fail. Like the many – with and without kids – who complained about the sexist Gap clothing ad, my wife Ellie and I metaphorically face-palmed when we first heard about it.
PHOTO CHIRON COLE
We are not on Gap’s mailing list and Ellie is a science teacher, so before the media furore broke, we had already ordered the Albert Einstein tshirt for our 16-month-old daughter, Annie. We did consider returning it, with the other items we’d purchased from Gap Kids, because we were enraged, but in the end we felt it made more of a point if she wore the t-shirt. She looks good in it. She’s got hair a bit like Einstein. It suits her.