The clock is ticking down, your team is down by 6 and a tense silence has fallen over the field. Then you hear it..."We want a touchdown! We want a touchdown!" The cheerleaders have taken hold and start to jump around, clap and scream. The crowd is on its feet cheering right along with them. The bleachers start to rumble with excitement. The players turn and look at their personal pep rally and pump their fists with a newfound energy. The ball is snapped...its in the air...the receiver catches the ball...breaks one tackle...then another...he clears the goal line...TOUCHDOWN!!! The crowd goes crazy; the cheerleaders start their dance and lead the crowd in the victory song.
What would a football game be without the cheerleaders? They aren't necessary to the game but they add a level of excitement that no one else could bring. So, why are the girls who grace us with their presence at trade shows often looked upon as tacky or a gimmick? They have the same job to do as cheerleaders. They are there to get customers excited about a product, get them interested and eventually to hopefully open their wallets.
The days of "booth babes" seem to be slowing exponentially. Women empowerment is on the move again and society is focusing more on 'real beauty' rather than superficial standards. This is not good news for the scantily clad babes of auto and gaming trade shows. There are always going to be women in this world who are going to make their living off their looks but their employment opportunities are being seriously limited. What better way to attract people's attention to your product than with beautiful smiling women ready and willing to flatter your potential customers at the drop of a dime?
Consider the girls seen at every auto trade show across the globe. In a world of fast cars, bumping systems and roaring engines, it just wouldn't be complete without beautiful women. Call it a stereotype, sexist or whatever you wish, but these shows are generally geared towards a male audience. There is no better way to get these testosterone pumping men to open their wallets than to have gorgeous girls flatter them. Think about this for a minute...how empty would photos of bright, shiny sports cars be without a beautiful woman dressed in a bikini sprawled out on the hood? Very, very empty.
Let's switch gears now and think about gaming trade shows. Almost every video game released today has been sexed up with at least one sexy female lead character. Again, these shows and the games are aimed at a mostly male audience. Most of the guys attending these shows are geeky (at least by our typical societal standards) who only dream of having a scantily clad model as their very own. Bring in the booth babes. Many of these girls dress up like the characters in the video game they are promoting. Real life girls as video game vixens is every gamer's fantasy. These girls make the guys feel good, tell them about a new game and hopefully in the end get the company a loyal new customer.
During such hard economic times, companies need to get creative in order to let their product stand out among the crowd. Some people deem booth babes as a gimmick and claim that their use degrades the reputation of the company. I think gimmick is a harsh word. Booth babes are just another marketing strategy used to appeal to a specific audience. So I say let these girls don their short shorts, fishnets and knee high boots. Let them loose in the trade show arena and sell their little hearts out. In the end, you walk away with higher sales and they can walk away knowing that somewhere, they are the focus of a guy's dream and all they had to do was collect a paycheck.
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