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Seriously, stop with the booth babes

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Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#21

Post by dmoney »

bluedanieru wrote: post #5
freddealmeida wrote: post #2

I'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 co…

Other cultures can handle sexuality better.

Which ones? And how do they do that?

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#22

Post by darksaga »

I've had similar experiences with booth babes not knowing what the company products are, specs or anything remotely useful to me. One of the points which jumped out at me in the article was this:

"You assume immediately that any attractive female is there simply for their physical appearance, not for the value that their knowledge brings."

This only due to my experience in expecting the eye candy to be something beyond just eye candy. Once you've conditioned me to only expect them to be that - then I'm going to skip them and seek out someone who knows something beyond the glossy pictures and swag their handing out.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#23

Post by dmor »

mgkimsal wrote: post #19
blahedo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the OP's point---the existence of booth babes has conditioned us to be surprised when an attractive woman, or possibly any woman at all, is "intelligent, informed, competent". This follow-on effect is even worse than the already-bad first-order effect (namely objectifying the booth babe herself).

Take gender out of it, I'm surprised when anyone who is related to a 'sales' dept at a conference booth is "intelligent, informed, competent". It's better at tech conferences, but still not a 100% given.

That's really quite sad when you think of it. Maybe my experience is some crazy outlier, but the sales people I've worked with both in shipping and in tech have been some of the smartest people I've known. Maybe these companies are sending the bottom of the barrel to conferences... I'm taking a note not to do that with my company.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#24

Post by burgerbrain »

dmoney wrote: post #21
bluedanieru wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

Other cultures can handle sexuality better. Which ones? And how do they do that?

In my personal experience, the Scandinavian cultures do it better by simply not making a big deal out of it.

When you teach all your children from a young age that nudity is naughty and sexuality doesn't exist, you shouldn't be surprised when they grow up ill equipped to handle such things maturely.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#25

Post by burgerbrain »

matusz13 wrote: post #18
MostAwesomeDude wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I will remember your product. I will remember that you had a pair of very polite models wearing baby-doll tees with your logos on them, and that they were completely clueless about your product. I will never buy your product and actively recommend against it. I remember all the booth babes I saw at OSCON and LinuxCon this year, and I will not forget.

Did you all shun Apple when Foxconn employees started jumping to their deaths? I'm guessing not. Is it possible that you'd be letting your bias get in the way of your business sense? What if those products could have significantly helped your business?

Seriously, lets get some perspective.

If women with tight clothing are the best reason you can think of to not purchase a product, that is a pretty damned good endorsement of that product... Your objectivity is compromised if that is how you make your decisions.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#26

Post by Joakal »

Sounds like a good prank to send female representatives and booth dudes just to confuse people's preconceived notions. Pretty useful if the company wants to come across as non-hetero-male.

I think that's better than just male/female representatives behind a desk trying to make a passive statement.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#27

Post by prodigal_erik »

dmor wrote: post #20
blahedo wrote: post #15

I'm getting the impression from reading the other comments that most of the commenters just skimmed the article (or perhaps didn't read it at all, and drew assumptions from the title). If you need a tl;dr, or if you read it quickly, this is the most important line in the post: > What you end up with is the situation where you, as a conference goer, walk up to a booth and, because you’re no stranger to how this works,…

Thanks for making the main point clear, I want to chime in here as a woman and someone who has represented my company from very early on at trade shows (and does to this day). In the telecom industry in particular these booth babes run rampant, they literally provide you with a form when you register to exhibit asking if you want to hire models. At one event a couple years ago, a guy came over to talk with our CTO (a…

Apart from the brain-dead flirting efforts, that heels-and-skirt-suit effect doesn't sound any different than my reaction to men in suits. If I want to find a clue, I look past the guy whose job involves showing up in a costume chosen in hopes I'm easily manipulated. But then I don't frequent trade shows, so I don't know how many nerds have enough clout to show up dressed normally but not enough to just stay home.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#28

Post by dredmorbius »

shawnee_ wrote: post #3

Learned 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: "I…

I also recall BSD staffing their booths (and the floor) with numerous women in red devil outfits, most of whom were quite technical.

There's Linux Journal's Carlie Fairchild, who's intelligent, informed, and beautiful, and has left a slew of broken hearts in her wake through no fault of her own.

There are a handful of other women in the Linux / Free Software community (it's overwhelmingly male), of whom Val Aurora and Erinn Clark come to mind (both have been involved in women/tech movements and between LinuxChix and Debian-Women there are numerous others).

But yeah, at trade shows, particularly those geared at suits and sales, the ornamental variety tends to be more common.

That said: I've found plenty of booths staffed by men who had little to no technical depth as well. To say nothing of, say, tech support lines.

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#29

Post by lawnchair_larry »

dmor wrote: post #23
mgkimsal wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take gender out of it, I'm surprised when anyone who is related to a 'sales' dept at a conference booth is "intelligent, informed, competent". It's better at tech conferences, but still not a 100% given.

That's really quite sad when you think of it. Maybe my experience is some crazy outlier, but the sales people I've worked with both in shipping and in tech have been some of the smartest people I've known. Maybe these companies are sending the bottom of the barrel to conferences... I'm taking a note not to do that with my company.

That's confusing. If the sales people are the smartest at the company, how can the product be any good? Maybe you are talking to the wrong companies ;)

Re: Seriously, stop with the booth babes

#30

Post by sunahsuh »

matusz13 wrote: post #18
MostAwesomeDude wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I will remember your product. I will remember that you had a pair of very polite models wearing baby-doll tees with your logos on them, and that they were completely clueless about your product. I will never buy your product and actively recommend against it. I remember all the booth babes I saw at OSCON and LinuxCon this year, and I will not forget.

Did you all shun Apple when Foxconn employees started jumping to their deaths? I'm guessing not. Is it possible that you'd be letting your bias get in the way of your business sense? What if those products could have significantly helped your business?

Yes. Because it's not called bias, it's called ethics and they help me sleep at night. And while the Apple issue was not applicable to me (I can't remember the last dollar I spent on an Apple product), I do, for instance, make a conscious effort to try and buy electronics that are made with conflict-free coltan (which is difficult due to the paucity of information on the subject).

I find your nonchalant suggestion sell out morally on this topic appalling, particularly as a woman myself.

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