Posted on 04/15/2009 6:36:28 AM PDT by marshmallow
Just a year ago, working as a product presenter at an auto show was a pretty straightforward job. You stood next to a vehicle, you called it a marvel of engineering, style and comfort and then you fielded softball questions like, “What does this baby cost?”
But that was before the bailout. Now that the government has helped General Motors and Chrysler stave off bankruptcy with billions of dollars in loans, these companies are finding somewhat hostile crowds at their exhibits. Which leads to scenes like the one on Friday at the New York auto show, where a blond woman in a tight black dress stood on a rotating platform and pitched the sporty Dodge Circuit, one of five electric cars that Chrysler is developing.
Donald Han, an accountant from Queens, sounded unmoved. “Why now?” he asked the woman, rather curtly, once she had finished her patter. “How come you’ve got to nearly go bankrupt before you come out with a car like this?”
Long a glamorous showcase for carmakers, auto shows have lately become a place for buyers and gawkers to vent. Few of the attendees at the Javits Center, where the New York show runs until Sunday, will ever encounter a top executive from G.M. or Chrysler. But all of them get within heckling range of the presenters and for some, that is good enough.
It does not seem to matter that these women — they are nearly all women, most of them young and attractive — work part time for marketing firms and talent agencies that have contracts to run the exhibits. Many know little about the car companies they are working for beyond the scripts they have memorized.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is crass behavior. Never abuse the help, and NEVER, EVER abuse the PA.
Agreed. They have nothing to do with the product or company...
Morons.
Besides, if the eye candy WERE the PA...
Don’t go there. You will find yourself in Iceland on a one-way ticket, and your corporate credit card will be reported stolen...
Just shows how dumb this particular accountant is... do you really think the eye candy on the car has any input or involvement from GM other than collecting her check for the modeling/acting gig?
Probably also abuses the counter help at McDonalds wondering why the McRib is only available for a limited time.
C'mon, man, it's fun to make fake announcements at Walmart on their PA system.
Wonder how many cars this accountant has designed? Dumb ass.
Because it's a stupid idea, and is only being done to placate morons.
Cowards, “men” who would never confront Men or the gov’t, just metrosexual idiots without a set.
Yeah, the real question is "Who the Hell's going to buy this thing????"
It’s a shame to see our society so dumbed-down as to heckle models who have no real association with the failed auto corps.
Idiots at large.
Ouch.
They're nearly bankrupt because they made TOO MANY cars like that (cars that the public didn't want).
You would think an accountant would have more to do on April 14 than heckle auto show babes.
And that is why the cowardly execs hire models to front for them.
It ensures that they only have to appear at a scripted "hearing" to be publicly weinie-waggled by congress critters, who, after the cameras are off, go to dinner with them to discuss their next campaign donations.
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