Marketing at the RSA Conference
Marcus Ranum has an interesting screed on “booth babes” in the RSA Conference exhibition hall:
I’m not making a moral argument about sexism in our industry or the objectification of women. I could (and probably should) but it’s easier to just point out the obvious: the only customers that will be impressed by anyone’s ability to hire pretty models to work their booth aren’t going to be the ones signing the big purchase orders. And, it’s possible that they’re thinking your sales team are going to be a bunch of testosterone-laden assholes who’d be better off selling used tires. If some company wants to appeal to the consumer that’s going to jump at the T&A maybe they should relocate up the street to O’Farrell where they can include a happy ending with their product demo.
Mark Rothman on the same topic.
EDITED TO ADD (3/11): Winn Schwartau makes a similar point.
Koray • March 5, 2013 2:14 PM
Actually I have (second hand) knowledge that quite often those who sign the purchase orders (not in security, but engineering in my case) were routinely taken to gentlemen’s clubs and this sort of practice produces results more often than one would hope.
We may seem to believe that people, who make big decisions, are more rational or less sexist than they are.