I have a quick-and-dirty two days off before having to head to the Chicago Auto Show. After a nightmare of a trip Monday (for no good reason, because weather wasn't to blame for the stupid delays) I am soaking up my time at home.
This time of year is absolute madness for an auto show gal. By the end of the Chicago show I will be surprised if I remember my own name. Of course, I'd better quickly remember it because a few days later I'll head to my next show. The paycheck is what makes these caffeine-fueled, frenzied months worth it. Eyes on the prize!
When I only have a couple of days off to recover before heading back out on the road, here's how I spend it: I hole up in my house seeking as little human contact as possible other than my very closest inner circle, and sometimes not even them. I don't do my hair. I don't do my makeup. I wear old ragged jeans or yoga pants and tee shirts and no shoes. I take bubble baths while watching movies on my laptop (placed safely outside the tub, of course). I spend quality time with my pet, who doesn't leer at me, ask me stupid questions, try to sneak photos of my ass or bitch about whatever we're giving away or lack thereof.
I do load upon load of laundry. I eat meals I had cooked and frozen before my last trip. I regret not making enough for when I come home from my next. I read the huge stack of mail waiting for me and pull out the magazines, saving them to read on the plane later in the week.
If I venture out, it is only when absolutely necessary, like to pick up some food or things I'll need for my next trip like fresh stockings or makeup. Then I scurry back to my quiet little home where I don't have to talk to anyone at all, least of all about naturally aspirated vs turbocharged engines or whether or not my ass is larger or the same size as at the last show.
But tomorrow I will be back in the airport. See you in Chicago!
Keeping The Purchase Time Down To A Condom-Minimum
30 minutes ago
Hope you enjoy your time off. Do you get to work at the shows in Europe too?
ReplyDeleteNo European shows - it's not cost-effective to send us overseas when there are plenty of people already there who could do it. Anyway, European auto shows are very different animals than those in the US - think Fiat/Chrysler : )
ReplyDeleteMiss, I`d just like to say that I never "got" the point of the sexy ladies hanging around the cars. I`m there for the cars, the tech and thats it. I don`t care if you were completely nude or dressed in a hemp sack, as I can get all the meat I want/need etc. on the internet, whenever I want it. Do you know the tech on the car? How big are the disc brakes? Are they vented? What ratio is the rear axle and does it have LSD? Is it a multi valve engine? What are the emissions? What does it handle like, compared to say, a Carrera GT2? Can I disable the traction control?
ReplyDeleteAll that matters to me is that you can answer this type of question. If you can, great. If not, get me someone who can. And no, I`m not a woman, and I don`t care if you are either. There is a time and a place for that too, and a car show is not it. I just wish that car show girls would just stop putting themselves in tight spots like that... if you dislike (and I can totally understand why) being oogled by men with their brains in their pants and less respect for women than a prison inmate, then clearly its easier to find some other job than to change the neanderthals...after all evolution takes time.
Yes, actually, I can answer those questions... And there have been billions of dollars spent on the psychology of marketing that determine the "type" that appears at a show. Some brands hire agencies that get it right more often than others. You might think the "type" of person doesn't affect who you visit at the show or your opinion of the vehicles, but it actually does, even on a subliminal level. Stay tuned for a post on this phenomena soon!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteI`ve been to too many car shows where unfortunately the car show girls has been more of the "uhm, its green..." type, and at the same time trying to be unbearably sexy to compensate... needless to say, as a car buff - in England I`d probably be referred to as an "anorak" - that was a bit off-putting. Would like to read more about this "phenomena" as you call it, on you blog soon. Oh and good luck with the rest of the shows you`ll be participating in, I hope the neanderthals give you a break :)
Thank you! Are you in England? European shows are still a very different animal than American.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I've never been to a car show, well at least not the kind that have girls at them :)
ReplyDeleteSo about knowing what the ratio of the rear differential is...
What is not a stupid question? Are we(the attendants) allowed to even ask the models anything at all? Are we encouraged to? Expected to? What are the rules?
Considering that thanks to the "type", everyone has their bitch shields up, can the rest of us actually have a genuine conversation with a "booth babe"?
It's so sad that you have to spend all this time on the road. Don't you have a husband or a spouse who can do the laundry and cook for you when you come back from a show? Doesn't it ever get lonely doing what you do?
ReplyDeleteYou spend days avoiding human contact yet you post on your blog to, one can only assume, to gain said human contact. I suppose the faceless Internet contact isn't as bad as the face to face contact but it can be much less inhibited. In a bad way.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Philadelphia International Auto Show last week. I went on Saturday, when the snow hit and the rest of the world stopped turning apparently. It was not crowded at all. It was very nice!
I had a great conversation with guys at the Lincoln display and they seemed so bored that they were asking me about Ford racing history. Or maybe they were trying to keep my girlfriend at the display to oogle her? Either way, I got to play with fancy Lincolns for a bit.
A sales rep for Chevrolet let me look at a ZR1 Corvette, which was nice. I also managed to get the Jaguar rep to let metake a closer look at the new Jag XJ as long as I promised to give him some contact info. The Porsche rep also gave me a card to contact him for a test drive in a Panamera when the weather improved! You don't always get that kind of access when the shows are crowded with people looking to exploit the chance to sit their fat asses in cars they can't afford while their misbehaved crotch-fruit torment the other show-goers with their antics.
I felt bad for the Chrysler girl though. She seemed to be at the display by herself. She did do her thing every hour like she was supposed to. Nobody was in the Chrysler display. So I stopped and listened to her pitch. Spoke to her for a bit afterwards. She was very nice and said her display had been fairly empty the entire week. I felt bad. But she said not to worry, she was still getting paid.
The Philly show isn't so great. It's put on by a dealer association and doesn't get a ton of manufacturer support. So there are barely any concepts that aren't years old and no advance models. Like a Fiat 500 for the Chrysler would have been awesome!
I wish I could get out to the larger shows like Detroit, Chicago and L.A. The only other show I can usually get to is the New York show and that's not always so hot either. It's usually too late in the season to see anything really new and fresh.
Has Porsche changed who they use for product specialists? I went to the Seattle Auto Show and it seemed like it might of just been folks from the local dealership.
ReplyDeleteBtw have you seen this - http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/women-of-the-windy-city-at-chicago-auto-show ? :) Cheers.
I'm sure it's a grueling job in many ways. I hadn't realized that there were two sets of Fiat Twins on the Chrysler stand, who worked in shifts. I'd go flipping crazy just standing their smiling.
ReplyDeleteSince you posted about being at home on Wed. I'm assuming that you didn't work Chicago's media preview. If you did, perhaps we met. If we met I hope I wasn't too creepy or too obviously taking a photo of your ass.
As a suggestion, maybe you could do a post about the difference between working the public days and working the media preview.
I hadn't realized it before but there may be more women working as models as opposed to product spokespersons at the previews than the public shows, but conversely there are more good looking men working the public shows, though there are very few men who are strictly models, almost all are either product people or performing a script and answering questions. GM, I notice, likes to use middle aged guys for Cadillac.
It's clear that one aspect of the female models at the media preview is as a favor to the photographers. As far as I can tell, working with the photogs is part of their job description.
FWIW, in addition to their permanent staff, the Chicago auto show uses interns from a local college to staff the media center, do go-fer stuff etc. By some strange coincidence nearly all of the interns are female and without exception they are way cute. I'm not complaining, without their attendance the party for the media at Buddy Guy's club would have been an even worse sausage fest. The next time you work the Chicago show, you and your sister booth babes should ask Paul Brian in the media center for tickets to the media party. I'm sure, based on his taste in interns, Paul wouldn't object to some models at the party.