Booth Babes?

So, my colleagues and I got into quite a discussion after the LA Auto Show. Several of them mentioned that they thought that it was time to retire the idea of "booth babes" – and one of them wrote this piece, voicing his opinions. http://driving.ca/auto-news/entertainment/motor-mouth-why-do-we-still-need-models-to-sell-cars

Some of the comments after the story and on Twitter... made me despair for the human race. First and foremost... I am in no way a prude, and can admire a human body (either sex) with the best of them. But I truly believe that objectifying women is really harmful to the psyche of our young people – it plants the idea that there's an impossible level of physical perfection to live up to, and that it's acceptable to use women to flog merchandise.

Love to hear what the GRM hive mind has to say on this topic!

Women should definitely NOT be used to flog merchandise.

They should be used to flog ME.

Seriously? It's a no-win discussion. There are cretins out there on both sides.

I just came here for the pics. Where are they?

As long as there are women willing to use their sexuality to there advantage, there will be men who are more than happy to use that fact to their advantage.

And put all those models out of work? Blasphemy! They're just trying to make a living.

And besides, how else will they get those that think cars are just a means of transport and it works magically to even look at what they are trying to sell.

I have no idea if they still do it or not, but back in the early 1980s Hewlett-Packard would staff their booths at engineering conferences with very attractive and smart female engineers. (They were dressed professionally, so no issues there.) There would always be a crowd of nerdy male engineers hanging around, but the women actually knew all about their products so I guess it worked out for everyone concerned.

As for the booth babes at car shows, the Hooters-style clothing they wear just seems silly, and they usually look terminally bored by the whole thing anyway. I like looking at pretty women, but that's not what I go to car shows for.

edited to add: The Norton motorcycle magazine ad in the linked article was actually one of their milder ones...some of them got pretty racy.

This is not a battle that can be "won".

"Selling" by its very nature, demands first that you be noticed. The human gene is wired to observe that which is sexually appealing. As such, it is an irresitable tool for selling goods.

For those that try and tell me that this is somehow a chauvinistic thing, I would ask that you peruse a Vanity Fair or Vouge magazine and take note that female sexuality is a tool used by and for the marketing to women as much if not not more than to men.

Look at the bright side, in the last 15 years or so, fear has been used increasingly by those trying to sell us a bill-of- goods and separate us from our cash. I will stick to sex thank you.

Sex titillates and grabs attention. But it doesn't necessarily keep attention. Back it up with some substance. I'm clever enough to realize that buying whatever car you're selling will not make me any more attractive to women. If that's the strongest argument you're going to make for why I should pay attention to your product, I'll look to one that offers me a more believable fantasy.

I do still like good looking women though, but I much prefer ones that can actually talk about and genuinely promote the product they are selling.

Women want to do it? By all means let them. They do attract old people(who typically have more money)

Every time I see a nice car with a girl draped over it, I think, "Hey, could you move that thing out of the way so I came see the car?" Rat rod mags, I'm looking at you.

It occurs to me that I've lived my entire life in a society that objectifies women. I never realized it before because I've never known any other kind of society. I suppose it's for the best though because the idea of masturbating to a well designed suspension is not nearly as defensible in a room of my peers.

Sorry ladies.

Isn't the whole concept of modeling, in and of itself, turning women (and men) into objects for viewing?

At the end of the day, I really dislike the fact that people make it out like only women are viewed as objects. On the flip side, for any woman (or man) who is cool with it, who are WE to say they can't be an object to someone if they consent to it? I think society is different nowadays in that "back in the day" women were secondary to men. Nowadays, its the woman's choice to be an object, rather than an obligation/demand.

Umm... They do it because it works. It's not hard to figure out.

If a company REALLY believes that we are past that, then I encourage them to go ahead and leave out the models. I GUARANTEE their booth will have almost zero participation.

Lesley, I've heard you make comments about firemen. Why is it OK to objectify men, but not women? Seems to me Madonna and Miley Cyrus have done an excellent job objectifying men.

It worked for the Q45 at the Challenge.

Your friend writes well, but he is mistaken. Advertisers will do what sells the product. That's their job.

those women that stand around in skimpy clothes and look bored next to the latest and greatest car parts are probably pretty well compensated for doing so..

maybe someone should ask Courtney Hansen how she feels about this stuff.. maybe some enterprising publisher of some sort of a magazine that caters to the more "grassroots" end of the hobby could do an interview/photoshoot with her to get to the bottom of this.. maybe get Linda Vaughan and Jessi Combs into it, too.. hell, bring Danica along for the ride to get the racer's perspective- or better yet, Jennifer Jo Cobb..

BTW, media portrayal of men as clowns, side-show acts, or buffoons is also a harmful image to plant in the psyche of our young people (both boys AND girls).

I can't think of a single media image of a man that I would want to be like, or want my kids to be like. It's either perfect abs, completely absent, or a guy who can't keep his beer (or his beer belly) out of the Doritos. Occasionally there is a guy who dominates people with his brain power, and is a social misfit.

Bottom line, don't look to the media for your role models.

I understand the point of booth babes intellectually (you know the whole sex sells yada yada that's why they put pretty people on TV) but I honestly can't say that I understand it for certain venues like car shows and video game conferences like E3. It isn't as if the attractive female is going to make me want a late model Camry all of a sudden or decide that the latest reskinned mobile phone game is the pinnacle of gaming. Generally I just find them pointless (see above) and in the way at an already crowded conference. Then there's always some jackass that wants his picture taken with the woman.

I suppose anyone is classier than EA Games though when it comes to "booth babes."

Forbes article on portrayal of men in the media

SVreX wrote: BTW, media portrayal of men as clowns, side-show acts, or buffoons is also a harmful image to plant in the psyche of our young people (both boys AND girls).

Painfully true, and I've only been aware of this for a few years as before I laughed along at the caricature of men in shows like Home Improvement, King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond.

There are two things at play here. The first is human attraction--we can't help but be attracted to good looking examples of humans on either side of the sexual divide. You simply can't choose to be attracted to someone or not. It's part of human animal wiring. Trying to deny attraction is futile.

Advertisers take advantage of this to gain your attention. How far they are willing to go is the only real difference. Scantily clad babes are blatant and obvious; we all know what is at work there. But what about something as benign as Jill Wagner pushing Mercurys?

Too sexy? Too titillating? How about Mike Rowe pushing Fords Lesley?

Where is the line between attention-grabbing and titillation? Most of the auto show gals I've seen are dressed like they're headed to a dinner party. Go to a motorcycle show, however, and it's a completely different dynamic.

I had to laugh at the headline and then look at the photos. That must be scantily clad for Canada. :) I see more than that just walking into my office every day.

Now with that being said, is it still needed? Yes. It's part of the attraction of the trade shows. Beautiful people selling beautiful things. My cousin did this as a spokeswoman for Honda to supplement her income as she was working up the acting ladder.

The funny thing is you look at some of them, especially for the Vegas shows, and they would be better not being there. haha

What is really good is when they can actually speak about the product they are showing off and answer questions. I know we would bring in a lot of our female sales people when we were running the big Vegas shows because they brought the guys into the booth.

Way to PC for me.

I'm with bmw88. When my son and I go to the Toronto auto show, we try to avoid (and we feel really sorry for) the ultra-beautiful presenters who stand on the revolving turntable and give their spiel about whatever model it is. It's obvious that they understand, at best, 80% of the information they have memorized. Everyone's entitled to make a living, especially actors when they're just starting out, but it's pretty painful to watch.

OTOH, both Buick and Cadillac stand out for staffing their booths with very attractive, conservatively dressed young women who know their products cold. Now THAT makes an impression.

When I was in the Water/Wastewater industry, booth babes were a staple at most of our larger shows. One year, the female CEO of one of the largest engineering firms in the country wrote an op/ed piece about the subject and her disdain for the practice. It was an overdue wakeup call and scantily-clad women in the booth became pretty rare.

I don't think it's as awful a thing as he makes it out to be. It's not like they are having sex with people to get them to buy a Camry. Pretty much every form of advertisement uses young attractive people in there ads. You don't see commercials with scruffy toothless people shopping because no customer wants to see themselves that way. There is going to be someone there to deliver a pitch about why I want a car and what makes it special. Are most show goers more likely to listen to someone that looks like Her:

or Him

My former boss at the chemical plant had an interesting way of handling it...

He would send our very buxom marketing director (dressed in something tight under a lab coat) AND our balding, overweight old-school Italian salesman.

She would catch EVERYONE'S eye. Some were attracted to her, some turned away.

For those who turned away, the Italian salesman was a "safe" conversation.

Either way, he hooked everyone.