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August 08, 2005
Booth Babes (and Beef)
When E3 started back in 1995, it was hard to tell the booth babes from the regular staff at the various corporate booths. There were numerous attractive women in the company that I worked for at the time (Sirtech Software), and invariably, one of them would be accused of being a "model."
While that would be flattering in most any other context, here, it wasn't a complimentary term.
The press that were visiting Sirtech's booth wanted to see their latest games in action, ask questions and receive informed answers. Models couldn't provide that, particularly since this was the first time they were seeing the product themselves.
There were rumors - hot rumors - about who was using models. The front desk staff at the Nintendo booth. Sega for sure. Possibly EA. Sirtech never did use models, that I can recall.
Nowadays, models are common and even expected. Every year, developers feel a sense of embarrassment watching women in lingerie (or less) hawking their wares, but every year, marketing rolls them out again.
Interestingly enough, a company called Agetec launched a priceless campaign this year - the Anti-Booth Babes. For their effort, they got a whole lot of press and a whole lot of laughs.
I'm curious what affect all this sexiness has on actual mature content in the games industry. Thoughts?
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at August 8, 2005 10:13 PM | Discuss this post on our forums