Truth in advertising: Dove's "Followers" video

I came across this ad by Dove while watching an episode of The Office.

The video, which is part of the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem, lists the number of Twitter followers (as of March 8, 2012) associated with "Today's top female..."

Reality Star -- 4,553,457
Fashion Model -- 13,710,211
Pop Star -- 20,268,261
Scientist -- 7

and concludes with the message

Dove wants to introduce your daughter to some new role models. Because strong female role models build stronger self-esteem.

Alright, it's a clever video and improving self-esteem is a worthwhile goal. But 7! Today's top female scientist has only 7 followers on Twitter? I don't know about you, but reading that statistic set off like all of my bullshit detectors. Of course, I don't doubt that scientists (regardless of gender) generally have far fewer Twitter followers than reality stars, models, and pop stars. I just don't think the difference is quite that large.

Initially, I figured it would be easy to disprove the '7 followers' statistic, but then something occurred to me... who the hell is "today's top female scientist"? The word 'top' is both ambiguous and subjective. Identifying "today's top female scientist" is kind of like identifying "the world's best city".

Given this ambiguity, there is really no way to test the claims made in Dove's video (well played, Dove). Nonetheless, I think if we can find some prominent female scientists with a lot more than 7 Twitter followers, it will demonstrate that Dove's video is somewhat misleading.

Here's what Google turned up (note my search was haphazard and certainly not exhaustive):

Number of Twitter followers for select female research scientists:
Dr. Kate Clancy	Anthropologist	3,093
Dr. Rachael Dunlop	Medical Researcher	6,337
Dr. Chris Gunter	Geneticist; Senior Editor for Nature (2002-2008)	4,706
Dr. Hopi Hoekstra	Evolutionary Biologist	279
Dr. Karen James	Geneticist; Director of Science, HMCS Beagle Project	7,044
Dr. Carolyn Porco	Planetary Scientist; Leader of the Cassini Imaging Team	9,124
Dr. Lisa Randall	Theoretical Physicist; Elected Member of the NAS	4,204
Dr. Jennifer Rohn	Cell Biologist	3,366
Dr. Tara Smith	Epidemiologist	3,334

Number of Twitter followers for select female science enthusiasts, journalists, etc.:
Dr. Deborah Berebichez	Physicist; Science Communicator	6,573
Dr. Sylvia Earle	Oceanographer; Nat Geo Explorer-In-Residence	7,090
Jane Goodall Institute	Conservation Organization Founded by Jane Goodall	120,493
Maggie Koerth-Baker	Science Editor for boingboing.net	8,506
Dr. Emily Lakdawalla	Former Planetary Geologist; Science Writer	14,792
Joanne Manaster	Biology Lecturer; Science Communicator	13,311
Jennifer Oullette	Science Writer	5,638
Dr. Kirsten Sanford	Former Neurophysiologist; Science Broadcaster	119,639
Nicole Stott	Astronaut	94,045

Happily, the situation is not quite as gloomy as Dove's video would seem to imply. There are female research scientists with almost 10,000 Twitter followers and a few female science communicators with around 100,000 followers. Two scientists in particular, Drs. Carolyn Porco and Lisa Randall, probably are contenders for the title of "today's top scientist" and happen to have far more than 7 followers (to the tune of about 3 orders of magnitude). Drs. Porco and Randall have each co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and have received numerous awards, honours, and prizes in their respective fields.

So was Dove lying?

Not exactly, but they did use ambiguous language and data to exaggerate their claim. In all likelihood, the majority of today's 'top' scientists (regardless of gender and how one defines 'top') would have 0 (or more accurately, N/A) Twitter followers because relatively few scientists use Twitter (especially the most accomplished scientists who are generally a bit older). I spent about 45 minutes checking whether any female Nobel Laureates, Fellows of the Royal Society, or National Medal of Science recipients were on Twitter, but I couldn't find a single one (again, my search was not exhaustive). Of course, admitting that "today's top female scientist" doesn't use Twitter would have made for a much less effective, but probably more accurate, video.

Again, I don't doubt the general claim made in Dove's video. I'm simply a big fan of truth in advertising.