11 minutes of fame, many more of regret

If the mission was intended to inspire other women and young girls, what’s with the over-sexualisation? In theory, Blue Origin wanted to attract the next generation of rocket scientists. When I think about how empowering it could be for a young girl to see an all-female crew in space, it makes me proud that it could change the path for so many. But is a sexy, tight blue spacesuit that wouldn’t look out of place in an American Halloween parade really the way to do it? Putting the "ass" in astronaut. What the actual?

And that’s before we talk about the full hair and make-up. Is this what we want to project about women in 2025? 

Then there’s the crew exclaiming love and devotion for the spaceship. It belittles women’s intellect so badly; this would never be a male rhetoric, if the same mission were carried out by a group of male celebs. This is not what feminism needs: a bunch of hot, rich women wearing an Avengers-style outfit and Spice Girl music videoing their way to virality.

Only 12% of people who have been to space are women, and just a quarter of aerospace leadership roles are taken by women. Even in 2019, Nasa delayed a planned historic all-female spacewalk, not because it didn’t have the qualified astronauts, but because it didn’t have enough properly sized suits for women (you could argue, they still don’t!). On paper, this had so much potential to drive change, but just didn’t live up to expectations. Hence, the criticism – people feel let down. 

And the one woman among the crew we should have been talking about, Amanda Nguyen, a Harvard astrophysics graduate and Nasa intern, who worked on projects including the Kepler exoplanet mission before becoming a civil-rights activist, following a rape at college, has been sidelined in favour of Katy Perry.

To add insult to injury, there is the narrative around the climate. "It won't be about me; it will be about this beautiful Earth. I think from up there, we will think, 'Oh my God, we have to protect our mother,'" Perry said. But you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that a journey to space will be bad for the environment.

While it may seem like an "if you don’t laugh, you cry" kind of story that dominates the news cycle for a while, it actually holds some very important reminders for brands. 

First, read the room. What is the narrative arc and what emotion do you want to engender? When the world is facing financial uncertainty, sending a bunch of rich people to space isn’t exactly what everyone wants to see. People just feel annoyed rather than empowered. 

Secondly, when you’re setting out to empower or create change, real action is needed. The reason behind a lot of the criticism is largely due to the long-term impact the mission has for women in Stem, or lack thereof. Representation matters but it needs to be followed with action to truly be meaningful. People are questioning how Blue Origin and its crew are showing up to support women in Stem and break the barriers for women in the aerospace industry, or encourage young girls to pursue a career in Stem. The lack of answers is why people are labelling Blue Origin as a vanity mission.

A stunt is nothing more than a stunt without a long-tail plan and a change strategy. More is needed than just the idea and video op. It is all about the execution, which is why this is all so frustrating. There was genuine potential here to inspire women to build a career in Stem, even change the path for a generation of young girls; instead the lack of consideration around how Blue Origin would create actual, tangible change is the reason for its downfall.

Kirsty Hathaway is executive creative director at Joan London.