2013's CES Booth Babes Are as Sexed-up as Ever, Now with Body Paint

BBC
Rebecca Greenfield 14,484 Views Jan 9, 2013

Despite the ongoing controversy from last year's Consumer Electronic's Show, the spokesmodels are back on the floor in Las Vegas this week, many of them wearing little more than a sports bra, and some wearing nothing other than paint. The BBC, which put together a video amidst last year's CES booth-babe debate, went back Wednesday to see how things have changed, and uh, they haven't. The new video shows a series of women dressed in varying amounts of clothing, including the body-painted models pictured above. The women at right in the stripes came from this Unbox Therapy video. To be fair, not everyone's going for the body-paint look — the latter video also shows women in sports bras and shorts, and even ones that are all covered up!

And, look, here's a pair of women in what look like "sexy nurse" Halloween costumes selling the Headquake app: 

(Photo via Reuters)

And here's a spokesmodel for Powerhouse Alliance, via our CES correspondent Joseph Gallivan:

And here we have a Polk Audio worker luring your average CES attendee to her booth. 

(Photo via Reuters)

Indeed, the CES booth babes are back, and they're as sexed-up as ever. What's more, it doesn't sound like the Consumer Electronics Association has any plans to change anything. The CEA would not talk about booth babes with the BBC, which might have something to do with the embarrassing quote CEO Gary Shapiro gave them last year, when he called their effort to report a story about spokesmodels "cute but frankly irrelevant," after admitting that the practice was "old school." He was at least right about the old-school part, but the hiring practice seems as ubiquitous — and unforgiving — as ever.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App