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Are Booth Babes Going Away? (Video)
Michael Steinhart, Editor in Chief of The Enterprise Cloud Site, went to this year's New York Cloud Expo, and saw only one booth with beguiling, scantily-dressed females trying to attract people to their employers' display. But Michael says one booth with babes was one more than last year, when the same show had no booth babes at all. So we wondered: Are booth babes going away? And if they are, is it because of political consciousness or tight budgets? Since Michael has put more time than we have into thinking about these questions, we fired up our webcam and had a little conversation with him about the future of booth babes at IT conferences and trade shows.
Seriously, the only people who really give two craps about booth babes are a) hypersensitive gender warriors and b) tech writers on a slow news day.
This year the expo had more booth babes than last year, which raises the question "Are Booth Babes going away?".
Say what now?
They will probably be a fixture at car shows for all time, and in Korean gadget reveals, but they seem so out of place at a software conference.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Even women are more likely to want to talk to a well-dressed, attractive woman than the pushy marketdroid or worse, the obese engineer wearing a t-shirt and ripped jeans who smells like he hasn't bathed in a week. It's not just about appearance; it's also about appearance. Know what I mean?
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I resent that some business is attempting to grab me by the balls rather than by my rational self.
Bruce Perens.
Most geeks learned early on that babes aren't interested. The more attractive a female was, the more likely she was to snub any geeks that approached.
So, geeks associate hotness with unattainability (and, in some cases cruelty), and as such their feminine wiles don't have the same effect as they might on a grown-up football player.
Geeks respond better to fellow geeks with a common cultural background and a solid technical understanding of whatever is being advertised.
The market is simply adjusting to what actually works for this demographic.
I like looking at booth babes as much as the next guy, but c'mon. It's just unprofessional. And frankly, I don't want to talk to a hired salesmodel at an IT conference, either. I want to talk to a technical person who knows the freaking product and can answer detailed technical questions about it. If I wanted a brochure, I'd go to the website. It's a waste of my time and your money to have anyone in your booth that doesn't know the product inside and out.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Seriously. The better question is, "Are pointless, expensive marketing booth conventions which provide middle management a convenient excuse to get shitfaced and hook up out of town going away?"
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Here's the question. If you meet one of these women in the elevator and happen to remember which booth she was working, would you feel confident that you could ask her a question about that company/product and get an informative answer? If yes, they're not booth babes, they're marketing people who happen to be attractive (which certainly helps their career, don't get me wrong). The problem isn't attractive women manning the booths, the problem is when the women are there solely to be attractive (in a very literal sense).
With respect, I'm no feminist, but the question here isn't whether sex is effective at selling. It certainly is. The question is the residual effects of using women's bodies in that way. Does it contribute to certain attitudes that could be negative for women?
I'm not really going to go farther down that path, because again, I begin rolling my eyes as some of the more insane feminist bullshit out there, but like any good thing, I wonder if using sex in that manner can have negative consequences, if done outside of moderation.
Feminism is more varied than the insane bullshit. If you're asking these questions, well, you might just be a feminist. You know, moderately.
I read an anecdotal story about a girl that used to be hired as a booth babe and got neat money from it. Used to, because the feminazis destroyed her job opporuntities.
What happened with womens rights really, It's a voluntary job after all and it apparently pays well?