I'm not sure if I'm in the minority here but I always find the concept of booth babes awkward as hell. Just the idea of interacting with someone who's been paid to endure my company seems rather unpleasant.
As part of being a team player, I had to have a lap dance. Sitting in a chair having a woman shove her breasts in my face after paying her was simply horrid. I remember feeling physically sick.
Heck, even escort services and prostitution are legal in some places.
Out of interest, why were the customer and sales guy so pleased to be there? Was there any rationalization going on[1], or did they just see tits and not think any further?
[1] ie "I think that one really liked me"
But, yes, I do recall some rationalization or at least attempts to 'connect' with the women.
Who wants to be the "creepy guy I had to give a lap dance to so that I could feed my children"?
(i) BB's are not paid to "endure your company", they are there just to attract the average conference/trade show attendee who happens to be a 30+ year old male. Now, you may find this objectionable, but then why stop at BBs; you should then object to all advertising, which by default use the same strategy. You should object to Danica Patrick and other GoDaddy girls. You should not drink beers that use provocative women in their advertising (that would be very few). You should not use Old Spice (their sexist marketing campaign was touted as "brilliant" just yesterday on HN) or Axe because they use similar approaches.
(ii) Think about it: Saying BB = stripper (as other people have written here) is the kind of generalization that you are objecting to. How is this different than the despicable notion that women attendees to these events somehow know less than male attendees? You are judging by the cover only. Have you actually talked to any of these girls?
Edit: Downvoters, please try to tell me why you think I'm wrong. Do you think females are not used in other advertising in this fashion? Do you think all BBs are strippers? Do you find my language objectionable? THINK! Then downvote.
Axe is a bit more understandable-- their marketing premise is that their fragrance will make you more attractive to women (which, while most likely false, is at least on the verge of plausibility).
However, I really have to object when you lump the Old Spice Twitter/YouTube campaign in with that. The fact that the actor in the Old Spice commercial was buff and topless was only a minor factor in the overall scheme of things. With Go Daddy and Evony, if you remove the breasts, there's nothing much left. With Old Spice, there was still a whole lot of win.
As for point (ii): it's been well over a decade since I've been to a trade show, but back in the day, there was no pretense that the "booth babes" had any knowledge of (or interest in) the product. They were there to be eye candy, pure and simple. Any other skills on their part was purely fortuitous.
(For the record, I didn't downvote you, btw).
But that's exactly my point: even though the guy's physique did nothing for me, there was still plenty for me to love in the campaign. As opposed to the Evony banner ads, on the other hand, which offer absolutely nothing to anyone not impressed by cleavage.
The bottom line: for a lot of products, sex sells. The only question is how tactfully it is done.
And this relates to my other point: some products are more inherently sexual than others. The entire premise of the Old Spice product (not just the campaign) is based on making oneself more attractive to the opposite sex. This is different than, say, Cisco Routers, where there is no natural connection between the sex used to sell the product, and the product itself.
What's your name? What do you do? Would you like a dance?
What's your name? What do you do? Would you like to find out more about our F5 internet appliances?
Being sold something by an attractive woman with an ulterior motive raises my hackles and causes me to put up my guard. I'm certainly not going to be receptive to the sales pitch.
It's a similar problem with waitresses (some places). But many waitresses I talked to actually enjoy their jobs and do occasionally make friends among customers.