Booth Babes (CONTENT WARNING)
Caution : Bad words and harsh language follows. If you're offended by these things, don't read this. Thank you.
I want to take some quality time to talk about the phenomena of "Booth Babes". I want to say this right away, that I'm as much a fan of the female body as the next guy. Women just LOOK better in BDU's, dammit! But that does not mean that a woman in a bikini will convince me that "Brand A" of paint is better than "Brand B".
And yet, every time there's an event, they trot out women and display them like racks of meat for players to drool over. "No touchie, just lookie. And while you're looking, isn't that paintgun in their hands so nice? You gotta have one, don't you?"
Fine, the demographic for paintball is male, 18-25, single with raging hormones. This might explain the state of tournament affairs. But beyond the obvious eye candy (and in some cases, WOW what eye candy!) does the booth babe actually serve a purpose? Not really. They stand there and say "Would you like to see the Intensifier? *giggle* I mean Intimidator?"
I really feel bad for these young women. No, really, I do. Surrounded by guys, most of which look and smell like they've been crawling in mud all day. (And in some cases, they have) And either sweating their bikini tops off in the summer or freezing their tailbones off in March or October. They know little, if anything, about paintball, and this is just their weekend gig. And they get oogled at by guys who can only stammer out "Your purdy." and "Nice guns." It's like being in the cage at the zoo, except the people outside the cage want YOU.
It's common. You go to Comdex, booth babes. You go to any electronics show for that matter, booth babes. You go to car shows, booth babes. Come to think of it, you go to any male dominated venue and you'll find booth babes. I wonder if there's a power tool convention out there. If so you know there's a booth babe. So they do serve a purpose, they get a guy's attention.
But I won't say it's degrading to women, because they have to want to stand there and get stared at by guys. No, it's actually a sad state of affairs when you have to have scantily clad women sell your product because your product sucks so much. Either that or it's the only way to get someone's attention from all the other booth babes milling about. Sex sells, and we're all buying.
But I wonder if they've gone far enough with the booth babes? How 'bout a catfight? Can we do that? A product on product catfight? Whoops, there's the cold water jug and it spilled all over them. Whoops those T-shirts are so wet they're ripping apart. There's TARGET MARKETING!
Hey, if the booth babe means you make more money, all power to you. But honestly, I'd like to see a product that works more than the woman holding it. But then again after so long the paintguns all look the same to me now, so I guess the nearly naked babes can make a difference. At least a little.
I want to take some quality time to talk about the phenomena of "Booth Babes". I want to say this right away, that I'm as much a fan of the female body as the next guy. Women just LOOK better in BDU's, dammit! But that does not mean that a woman in a bikini will convince me that "Brand A" of paint is better than "Brand B".
And yet, every time there's an event, they trot out women and display them like racks of meat for players to drool over. "No touchie, just lookie. And while you're looking, isn't that paintgun in their hands so nice? You gotta have one, don't you?"
Fine, the demographic for paintball is male, 18-25, single with raging hormones. This might explain the state of tournament affairs. But beyond the obvious eye candy (and in some cases, WOW what eye candy!) does the booth babe actually serve a purpose? Not really. They stand there and say "Would you like to see the Intensifier? *giggle* I mean Intimidator?"
I really feel bad for these young women. No, really, I do. Surrounded by guys, most of which look and smell like they've been crawling in mud all day. (And in some cases, they have) And either sweating their bikini tops off in the summer or freezing their tailbones off in March or October. They know little, if anything, about paintball, and this is just their weekend gig. And they get oogled at by guys who can only stammer out "Your purdy." and "Nice guns." It's like being in the cage at the zoo, except the people outside the cage want YOU.
It's common. You go to Comdex, booth babes. You go to any electronics show for that matter, booth babes. You go to car shows, booth babes. Come to think of it, you go to any male dominated venue and you'll find booth babes. I wonder if there's a power tool convention out there. If so you know there's a booth babe. So they do serve a purpose, they get a guy's attention.
But I won't say it's degrading to women, because they have to want to stand there and get stared at by guys. No, it's actually a sad state of affairs when you have to have scantily clad women sell your product because your product sucks so much. Either that or it's the only way to get someone's attention from all the other booth babes milling about. Sex sells, and we're all buying.
But I wonder if they've gone far enough with the booth babes? How 'bout a catfight? Can we do that? A product on product catfight? Whoops, there's the cold water jug and it spilled all over them. Whoops those T-shirts are so wet they're ripping apart. There's TARGET MARKETING!
Hey, if the booth babe means you make more money, all power to you. But honestly, I'd like to see a product that works more than the woman holding it. But then again after so long the paintguns all look the same to me now, so I guess the nearly naked babes can make a difference. At least a little.
What's in Tyger's CD player :
(And yes, I wussed out on a HUGE portion of this post. Down the road, I'll republish it. But for now, it's just about the booth babes....)
posted by Rob "Tyger" Rubin at
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
2 Comments:
Heh, well thats is true. The booth babes attract the guys and when their there they take a look at the guns...the pantball guns.Its like commercials on tv, their just there to get the name out, put it in the back of your head so next time your in the market for a marker and you might recognice the marker that purty gurl was holding. As for it being derogitory for the women... its kinda like "i have it, why not use it?" when it comes to their bodys. I mean, wouldent you like to get a nice chunk of change for just standing, holding some random object?
By
Anonymous, at Sunday, July 24, 2005 6:49:00 PM
Well, what ya gonna do?
The saying isn't "Personality sells", is it?
By
Anonymous, at Monday, July 25, 2005 8:35:00 PM
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