The answer about why companies use models is this:
"At the American Bass car audio booth, Gurwin Ahuja says he hires models for a simple reason: It works.
"Given our core consumer audience, males 18 to 34, it just brings attention," said Ahuja, whose father owns the Solon, Ohio, company. "You’ve got all the biggest companies in the world competing against each other at this conference. … Every year it gets harder and harder to get attention. Everyone’s trading on attention.""
But then this happens
Orion general manager Edgar Cedeno, who hired the women at a day rate of $250, says it’s not about being sexist but about breaking the ice with conventioneers.
“The girls are giving out (product materials). My girls are well covered. They’re not showing more than they’re supposed to ... nothing too sexy,” he said.
Flores would prefer to be called a "booth model" than a "booth babe."
Ivette Flores, a paid model for the Orion Car Audio
Ivette Flores, a paid model for the Orion Car Audio booth. (Photo: Edward Baig/USA TODAY)
“You’re not always going to look this way, and if you can find your way to monetize it without jeopardizing your character and having people respect your boundaries then you should do it," she said.
A few minutes later, those boundaries were crossed when a man reached around and grabbed her buttocks as she took a picture with him.
That kind of behavior — which Flores said she quickly stopped — contributes to the pernicious sexism that women in tech say keeps them from advancing or even entering the industry at all.
"But women who attended the show — particularly from 1998 to 2011 when it ran concurrently with the Adult Entertainment Expo — say the spectacle of women dancing and posing on the show floor made them feel they were not in a professional place where they would be taken seriously"
The “Elephant in the Valley” survey found that nearly all of the 200-plus senior women in tech who responded had experienced sexist interactions, with 60% of them being subjected to unwanted sexual advances.