From OnePlus, the smartphone maker that does sell phones unless by invitation.

“As we close in on the 200K mark for the number of registered forum users, OnePlus wants to give a shout out to the few but beautiful female fans in our community with our Ladies First contest.

In true gentlemen fashion and because chivalry is not dead, we are giving the lovely ladies of OnePlus a chance to skip the invite line and introduce themselves to us.

Ladies (and only ladies, sorry guys, ladies first), the rules are simple:
Draw the OnePlus logo on a piece of paper or on your hand/face/wherever (so we know it’s really you)
Take a photo of yourself with the OnePlus logo clearly visible
Post the photo in this thread
The 50 most well-liked ladies will receive an invite and a Never Settle t-shirt. Additionally, we will be giving out another 100 invites at random to any lady who participates in the contest. The contest begins today and ends on Friday. We will announce the winners on Monday.

Ladies, no nudity please”

In today’s politically correct society, this type of marketing is 100% sexist and is tasteless.

However, for a new startup, it’s certain to gather print and online print. And there is no such thing as bad publicity and therefore achieves its intended purpose whether or not you agree with it, is a different matter.

Update – all threads relating to this despicable stunt have been pulled. I so wonder if OnePlus ever intended to run this competition and merely used it for the attention. I will say, when my invite arrived last week to buy the OnePlus One phone I so despised the company with all it’s tacky tactics that I decided never to buy a phone from them!