Cebit’s ‘booth babes’: what were they thinking?
Friday, May 28th, 2010
That could be the only explanation for the appearance of young women wearing what appeared to be either underwear or swimming attire at many booths. Quite rightly they have been badged “booth babes” by observers because they have been treated as if they were not adults but small children who could amuse visitors.
From that you could make the not unreasonable assumption that those who booked these “booth babes” to appear at stands have a regressed perspective (or one that hasn‘t grown up). And what is worse, is the realisation that they are actually managing the budgets of some companies.
Compounding this is the complete ignorance that the businesswomen’s market is one of the biggest growth areas in Australian business. As women continue to start up businesses and also taking more responsibility for the chequebooks of large companies, they need to be informed about their technology decisions.
The appearance of ‘booth babes’ on stands ensured that any women wanting to do business with that company was repelled from their stand. This is not even to consider how women and men from other cultures would feel by this confrontational behaviour.
Research confirms that women and men offended by this (and who wouldn’t be?) most likely went away telling as many people as possible about how they felt. And if they used social media this would be thousands.
Here’s just a few responses in the social media that were reported this week:
“Why do IT companies still think booth babes are a clever marketing trick?” asked Rachel De Sain, vice president of the Victorian branch of AIMIA. “Trashy and so last century.”What do you think about the “booth babes” and the executives who organised their appearance?
