E3 Gaming Conference Says No More Booth Babes

from the you-must-be-this-ugly-to-attend dept

While there’s been plenty of controversy over the fact that many companies employ “booth babes” at various tech-related conferences, it’s still a bit surprising to see E3, the video gaming industry’s big show, officially ban booth babes at this year’s show, threatening $5,000 fines for any semi-clad booth workers or sexually provocative material (presumably, fully clothed, yet still attractive, spokespeople are still allowed). The Reuters piece suggests that this decision may stem from last summer’s controversy over sexually explicit material found in Grand Theft Auto (where stealing cars and killing people is fine, but cartoonish consensual sex deserves to be punished), though there are probably plenty of other, better reasons for the ban. While we’d hope that the lack of human flesh on display wouldn’t impact the show, it’ll still be interesting to see how attendees react to finding all of the booths manned by fully clad spokespeople rather than the more promiscuously dressed representatives they’re used to seeing. Of course, it seems that this move will put one website completely out of business.


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Comments on “E3 Gaming Conference Says No More Booth Babes”

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17 Comments
Sohrab says:

No Subject Given

I agree, this is just retarded. I guess the game industry is where Hollywood used to be. When people did drugs, act out of norm, people used to blame Hollywood till it became a mature part of this culture.

Video game industry is in the same position. Their starting to become a power player and everytime somebody steals or gets shot, its GTA and Dooms fault.

You cant blame them for trying to fix their image up, although its a shame and takes that fun spunk out of the event.

I know i love seeing chics dressed like my favorite video game girl. Makes the fantasy that much better 😉

giafly says:

Probably The Other Exhibitors Complained

I’ve run stands at several trade shows and know that it’s very difficult to do business if the stand next to yours makes trouble, for example by playing loud music.

Whatever my personal views on booth babes, if I’d paid $10Ks for a stand and someone else’s staff were unfairly distracting my punters, I would be complaining to the show organizers every hour until they sorted out the problem. Multiply this hassle by all the other exhibitors affected and you can see why E3 might want to tighten the rules.

Jonathon says:

Sex Sells

Despite your religious point of views, sex sells. Bottom line. I do understand deceny and the like, but this just seems a little misguided. The main target audience is probably 16-25 males…and the last time I checked on those demographics, horny and testosterone were probably two words that could be used to describe them. I guess we can all wait for a new expo to start up that encourages booth babes…maybe even mandates that no tops are allowed.

Anonymous Coward says:

My concern is for the ladies. I don’t know how much they get paid, but I reckon they’ll notice the difference. What’s a pretty girl to do when she needs money?

Aside from that, seriously, it’s a 14 year old mentality that bemoans this “loss.” Either you can meet women on your own, or you can’t and you need to have someone pay pretty women to just stand next to you. Which is it?

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