Ada Lovelace lingerie ads featuring tech’s leading ladies cause a stir

NEW YORK –  The brand Dear Kate debuted their new lingerie line The Ada Collection this week. It’s named after Ada Lovelace, the woman who created the first-ever algorithm waaay back in the 1800s. 

To promote the tech-y brand, Dear Kate created an ad campaign featuring some of the female leaders in the tech world in Ada Lovelace undies. But the revealing promos didn’t sit too well with some tech lovers, who said the ads perpetuate sexism in the tech field.

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CEO and Founder of Dear Kate Julie Sygiel defended her decision.

“There has been a lot of sexism in tech, so we’re taking it one step further and really saying women should be respected regardless of what they’re wearing,” Sygiel, a chemical engineer, told FOX411. “At the end of the day everyone wears underwear.”

The ads feature the female tech leaders working away on laptops and iPads. In one picture, a woman is shown posing in front of a wall covered in sticky notes that feature terms like “JavaScript” and “Browser Exploits.”  

“Women are so much more than how we look, and I’m smart, creative and have really good ideas, and that is totally unconnected to how I look,” Sygiel said. “If someone sees me in my underwear and that perpetuates sexism then I feel sorry for them.”

Sarah Conley, who founded the blog Style It, said she chose to model in the campaign in order to empower women.

“I do not feel the ad was sexist,” Conley argued. “The ad is not sexualized in any way.  We all wear underwear. If someone feels it’s anti-feminist or sexist for us to be shown in our underwear, they need to take a second look at it.”

Still, Sygiel acknowledged not everyone seems to take kindly to the campaign, but she said the important thing is that the lingerie ads are a topic of conversation.

“We have gotten a lot of support on social media. Definitely there are people who don’t understand it, and they’re questioning is this positive, is this negative,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re creating a dialogue that wasn’t necessarily there before.”