Seriously, stop with the booth babes
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Seriously, stop with the booth babes
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Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#2I'm not sure why there is such a push against this in the states. Its very simplistic marketing, yes, and it does shift behavior (ignoring the women or overbearing attention to them) but them it seems all sectors use sex and sexuality to build attention.
I don't think the authors attempt to embarrass companies will work. Because it worked. You showed up at the booth. And any marketer will tell you that even a bad interaction is worthwhile. Attention is at the heart of this strategy.
If you want to reduce booth babes, avoid the booths completely. Treat them like kids with ADHD. Berating them wont work. Ignore them and they fall in line. (of course, that is a simplification)
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#3Learned this the hard way. Back when LinuxCon was still called LinuxCon, I made the mistake of making a beeline to the first "booth" I saw that was manned by a fellow female. I studied the setup, ascertained what kind of hardware being shown off by this particular vendor, and proceeded to inquire along the line of shop talk.
Although I don't remember exactly what I asked her, this was the gist of our exchange.
BB: "It's 2X faster!" (Vanna White, preening the chipset)
Me: "Faster than what?"
She appears panicked and quickly reads over the spec sheet behind her booth. Finally, after a minute, she looks up and says "It's just . . . faster."
Dear companies, giving the BBs a script isn't enough if they don't understand what the metrics on the script actually mean.
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#4The author only reinforces the fact that booth babes work. His argument that he hates them because he falls for them would probably only get me to consider using booth babes in the future. Sure, the approach is kind of 'Don Draper' but considering the audience... it's probably a viable marketing approach.
There's probably an argument there about looking for original marketing approaches, as booth babes are an old and one "might" say overdone idea.
but meh, bring on the booth babes.
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#5I'm not sure why there is such a push against this in the states. Its very simplistic marketing, yes, and it does shift behavior (ignoring the women or overbearing attention to them) but them it seems all sectors use sex and sexuality to build attention. I don't think the authors attempt to embarrass companies will work. Because it worked. You showed up at the booth. And any marketer will tell you that even a bad int…
Because it's crass. Because of that asshole at the Skyrim demo who screamed out "rape her" as soon as a female character appeared on the screen, and that this kind of advertising, if you can call it that, appeals to exactly that demographic.
Other cultures can handle sexuality better. Americans, male and female, toggle between acting like a a pack of feral dogs and a congregation of calvinists whenever the subject comes up.
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#6I sort of accept booth babes as a given (I'd prefer to get rid of them, too, but once one company uses them, everyone has to; at the very least companies should commit to "no first use").
The thing that surprises me is when "booth babe" type people turn out to be actually intelligent, informed, competent people who are knowledgeable about the product. Sometimes they're full time staff, and sometimes they're professional conference booth presenters, but there have been times when they actually knew more about the overall market and sometimes about the specific product than the company employees, mainly because they'd worked the same conferences over and over for different firms.
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#7I'm not sure why there is such a push against this in the states. Its very simplistic marketing, yes, and it does shift behavior (ignoring the women or overbearing attention to them) but them it seems all sectors use sex and sexuality to build attention. I don't think the authors attempt to embarrass companies will work. Because it worked. You showed up at the booth. And any marketer will tell you that even a bad int…
It's often been considered a problem in the states because there is a lack of women in the tech field. The high presence of booth babes at tech related events is rather disturbing for those few women in the field. I'd honestly be more okay with it if they actually tried to hire attractive in general, and not just attractive women.
Though, at the guts of it, if you have to sell your product with attractive people then you may not have much of a product to sell.
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#8I want coworkers who were irresistibly drawn to making software as soon as they saw a computer. I don't much care who we could lure in adulthood by merely making the incidentals look more pleasant. If anything, I'd like to find a way to deflect the horde of male dilettantes we're saddled with, because they're showing up just shockingly unqualified and I'm past tired of interviewing them.
Besides, how many developers even get sent to trade shows other than staffing their employers' booths? Isn't that more a PM and marketing thing?
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#9Down for me, here is the google cache link:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rt452e6...
Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes
#10Please get rid of the recruiter "babes" too!
I'd rather hold a conversation with a knowledgeable technical person than yet another clueless plastic barbie doll!