Monday, April 19, 2010

PC Fair, Booth Babes & Others

Sex sells. In conjunction to the PC Fair held in Kuala Lumpur on April 16-18, many exhibitors hired young girls to promote their products. Call them expo girls, booth babes or whatever, these pretty promoters had made the PC Fair more than just about technology.


Sony showing 3D technology in the PC Fair


Three promoters for Kaspersky Lab


A rechargeable battery dealer had gone one step further in exploiting the sexual appeal of young promoters. Not only it had hired three pretty girls to attract customers, but it also organized a photo contest. Anyone who purchased any item from its booth was entitled to photograph the girls and participate in the contest. The dealer has listed down the rules of the contest as follow:


1. To enroll for the Grand Prize – buy any item from our booth

2. Take photos of our models posing with our E8GE products!

3. Log on to facebook.com/e8gefb

4. Upload your best photo of our models by 11:59pm 30 April 2010

5. Get your friends to “like” your photo until 11:59pm 9 May 2010

6. The top 62 photos with the highest number of “likes” win!


Now, if a photographer asks his friends to ‘like’ his photo, he is indirectly doing a marketing job for the products. (I’m assuming all participants are males.) What a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, I had less than 50 friends on Facebook. There was no way I could win the grand prize (a total of 2, with the remaining consolations).

One of the models for this contest was Rhea Lim, whom I photographed last year. I was surprised that she still recognized me. I bought four rechargeable batteries and a charger from the booth, but was nonetheless not interested in joining the contest.

This photo contest reminds me of another online contest held several years ago – The New Seven Wonders of the World. Even when the competition was going on, I already could predict the final results. China had the largest number of Internet users in the world, and they were fiercely patriotic. They were called to support their own national treasure, and anyone who failed to do that would be condemned as traitor. As expected, the Great Wall got the most votes in this meaningless competition.


15 comments:

  1. Clever marketing and "exploitation"...haha. I have never visited any PC fairs before. Too crowded la.

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  2. I can tell these girls are going to be a regular show for future PC fairs...

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  3. Wow...obviously everything there is better compared to the one in Malacca. :D

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  4. but hey, aren't some of the girls usually work in all kinds of fairs? pc fair..car fair etc. i mean, professional models for fairs lah

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  5. Mei Teng
    Oh yes, PC Fair was terribly crowded.

    witch
    Not just PC Fair, but other shows as well.

    tekkaus
    Well, this is Malaysia...
    In the U.S., some of the best expos are in Las Vegas and Atlanta.

    xin
    Some of the models are students. I guess we can say that they are semi-pro.

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  6. what's this? the booth babes so far !! take a close up shot ma, aiyo !

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  7. The worst part if that guys are stupid enough to buy a product just to have their picture taken with the girls! :-D

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  8. saucer
    I do have some close up shot.

    Zhu
    Well, that's why I say 'sex sells'.

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  9. haha, so true!! whenever there are babes, there sure be more business.. and now you see why the merchants are hiring babes to attract geeks~~ :D

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  10. The model remember you is a good thing. Go for it! LOL

    Anyway the marketing very clever but I am more interested in the 3D television for now.

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  11. Global votes will always be biased in a sense. But guess if you get a panel of "judges", the biasedness will not be gone.

    From the point of view of organisers, what matters is that the 7 new wonders are "acknowledged by the world". They don't care who wins.

    On a separate note, the gals in white are kawaii! =p

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  12. SK
    Can't blame businesses for hiring babes?

    Leon
    I am also interested in 3D TV, but can't afford it :(

    shingo
    Agree that judges are biased too, but at least this is not so much of a number game.

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  13. where where? where is the close up shots?

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  14. saucer
    I don't want to post too many photos. Otherwise people may think I am crazy about women :P

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  15. Post a couple of those close ups... let us salivate. Haha.

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