CEA president calls complaint about CES booth babe ‘irrelevant’

Mat Honan, for Gizmodo:

But the second issue is arguably more important. It’s the cluelessness. To demean the concerns about booth babes as “cute” and “irrelevant” shows a huge disconnect with, I dunno… this century. The drumbeat against booth babes grows louder every year. It isn’t going away, and will only get bigger. Other trade shows are at least addressing it, and the CEA should do the same before it finds 60 Minutes shoving a camera in Shapiro’s mug.

“Shapiro” is CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro, whose company puts on the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). He responded to criticism from the BBC about the practice of hiring “booth babes” – scantily-clad young women. Shapiro made the error of being dismissive about the practice, saying, “So your effort to try to get a story based on booth babes, which is decreasing rather rapidly in the industry, and say that it’s somehow sexism imbalancing, it’s cute but it’s frankly irrelevant in my view.”

Look, I admit that I appreciate the female form, but booth babes are a mistake, at least in their current form. They’re very rarely, if ever, briefed about the product they’re helping to pitch, which makes their presence a superfluous distraction. Mat Honan makes some great points and I encourage you to read more.

http://www.thegraphicmac.com/ JimD

Put booth babes in the Apple stores and I might buy another iPad… and I don’t even need the one I have!
Coward Anonim

If companies want to pay them and they want to get the job, then what is a problem?

Can’t adults (18+ years) make decisions for themselves? How the h… they are eligible to vote in a public election, then? Is not election more important???
- http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous
  
  I think booth babes are more about erections than elections.
- Gustav
  
  Because it projects the image that women are not welcome in the tech industry except for using their body to sell product.
- http://mangochut.net/ mangochutney
  
  When I go to a trade show I go there for the products. If companies need scantly clad women to get my attention, I immediately suspect that their product isn’t good enough to impress me on its own.
  
  I like women as much as the next guy, but I find the practice of putting scantly clad women on display at such shows insulting. Why? Because what the people hiring them are telling me, is that I’m so controlled by primal urges to serve every female in sight, that I’ll flock to every booth with booth babes.
  
  Good products don’t need booth babes to be sold. Modern men don’t need booth babes to find those products.
http://www.thegraphicmac.com/ JimD

Booth babes had their time, back when CES was all about the basement nerds and this was their only chance at seeing a woman in real life (beyond their mom, that is).

That time has passed, and so should this tradition of having booth babes in the hopes of getting attention to your booth.
- Peter Cohen
  
  CES was never about basement nerds. It’s always been a show for buyers and people in the retail space. Which perhaps explains the booth babes and the sleaze factor more readily than “basement nerds.”
Vamsmack

It strikes me as a toned down ‘buy a client a hooker’ sleaze move. Show the client a good time and they’ll give you their business.

It’s a sad move but honestly as much as I like women if I am at a trade show i’m probably working so at least for me the booth babes are just an annoyance unless they’re product experts.