OK. I have changed my tune. I have always had a laissez-faire attitude toward booth babes. I come from the school of what works. And if booth babes generate leads, of which some statistically result in deals, I’m good. Mr. Market says that if something works, you keep doing it. And when it stops working you move on to the next tactic. Right?
Not so much. Chenxi Wang and Zenobia Godschalk posted a thought-provoking piece about why it’s time to grow up. As people and as a business. This quote from Sonatype’s Debbie Rosen sums it up pretty well,
…this behavior is a “lazy way of marketing”, Debbie Rosen of Sonatype said, “this happens when you do not have any creative or otherwise more positive ways of getting attention.”
I agree with Debbie. But there are a lot of very bad marketers in technology and security. Getting attention for these simpletons is about getting a louder bullhorn. Creativity is hard. Hiring models is easy.
What’s worse is that I have had attractive technical product managers and SEs, who happen to be female, working at my company, and they were routinely asked to bring over a technical person to do the demo. It was just assumed that an attractive female wouldn’t have technical chops. And that’s what is so troubling about continuing to accept this behavior.
I have daughters. And I’m teaching my girls they can be anything they want. I would be really happy if they pursued technical careers, and I am confident they will be attractive adults (yes, I’ll own my bias on that). Should they have to put up with this nonsense? I say not.
Even better, the post calls for real change. Not bitching about it on Twitter.
Writing blog posts and expressing outrage on social media alone won’t work. We need to make this issue a practical, rather than a rhetorical one. Those of us who are in positions of power, those of us in sales, marketing, and executive positions, need to do something real to effect changes.
I still pray at the Temple of Mr. Market. And that means until the tactic doesn’t work, there will be no real change. So if you work for a vendor make it clear that booth babes make you uncomfortable, and it’s just wrong. Take a stand within your own company. And if they don’t like it, leave. I will personally do whatever I can to get you a better job if it comes to that.
If you work for an end-user don’t get scanned at those booths. And don’t buy products from those companies. Vote with your dollars. That is the only way to effect real sustainable change. Money talks.
We live in an age of equality. It is time to start acting that way. If a company wants to employ a booth babe, at least provide babes of both genders. I’m sure there are a bunch of lightly employed male actors and models in San Francisco who would be happy to hand out cards and put asses in trade show theater seats.
Reader interactions
7 Replies to “Booth Babes Be Gone”
The hiring of attractive women to help sell something extends far beyond the geeky tech conference and marketing. They’re not all wearing mini-skirts and short tops. Let’s not fool ourselves here. Take a look at nearly any organization that hires or sells something to males. I’m sure you’ll find an abundance of attractive women where that interaction generates business.
I was at Blackhat 2 years ago and I was really irritated by the booth babes because I wanted to talk to an engineer dammit! Don’t waste my time.
Also, when I can’t get into a bathroom because they’re changing I’m much less likely to buy their product. Rent a changing room for gopod’s sake.
I’m a guy who’s been in IT security for about 8 years. I get tired of Sales bringing along women wearing tight mini skirts and showing a lot of cleavage. (One company even brought along an ex “Miss Country-I-Won’t-Name”.)
I get tired of booth babes telling me I “can’t possibly be in IT because I’m not geeky”. (I admit this worked when I first entered the industry but not now I am older and slightly wiser.)
I can’t take these women seriously, and I can’t take their companies seriously. However, that’s just me.
In saying that, we live in the real world. Sex sells. It’s mostly men making the decisions, and we’re simple beasts at our core. I would do the same if I were in their shoes.
Things like this will never change until women are better represented in the industry. A lot of it is cultural, too. I’m not American, but I bet it happens a lot more in the USA than in Sweden, for example, where women’s rights and equality has progressed further than other parts of the world.
I would argue it’s not about not giving away money to these companies. They won’t know why, and they’ll keep on going with the status quo. We need to encourage better representation in the industry and tell our Account Managers we don’t appreciate their sales/marketing tactics.
I’m a female who got my undergrad in EE in the early 80’s. Worked my share of production lines, design teams, etc. Put up with alot of leering, cat calls, innuendo, propositions, physical advances and more – the worst behavior was from the degreed engineers and managers. I now have a daughter, and like Mike, am raising her to be anything she wants to be. I’ve not put up and successfully dealt with poor behavior to see it continually eroded lazy marketing. Saying no to booth babes does work. I’ve seen it happen. Money DOES talk.
Hmmm… were you at interop or was it show #x?
Amen….
How about Shimmy you were right all along 😉