Chrysler's booth babe backlash - UPDATE

I decided to dig deeper into this story because a lot of really good people are losing a lot of work over this, and that's not cool. A commenter on my original piece said that a good friend of his was still on the Chrysler team from last year and obviously hadn't been laid off, and that got me thinking about exactly what sort of shenanigans were actually going on over there.

There are eight auto shows happening at once this weekend, and I happen to be working a regional one rather than a major. (There are almost 80 shows each season; obviously they are not all Detroit.) At this smaller regional show I noticed the women manning the booths were most certainly not the women in Detroit, most certainly not wearing silver Herve Leger bandage dresses and most certainly did know their shizz about their vehicles.

So I ventured over to ask a few questions, and this is the info straight from the horse's mouth, as it were...

A few product specialists from previous years were kept for one purpose and one purpose only: to fill in the gaps at tiny little regional shows held in cow barns where Italian fashion models don't care to venture. They have had maybe eleven days of work the entire auto show season. Meanwhile, the Italian fashion models are working all the medium- and major shows like Miami, LA, Detroit, Chicago, NYC and a bunch of others despite the fact that they don't know anything about the cars.

And the crazy thing is that last year's team was beautiful AND talented AND knew their product inside out. But Fiat decided if you're not taller than 5'9" you're outta there unless you want to work in places where consumers can see through marketing tricks designed to get their attention: small-town America where they value substance over style.

Seriously, when you're at the Chicago show in a couple of weeks go over there and ask something not in their very basic brochure. See what happens.

Joke's on Fiat, methinks. Of course, this is a company that thought an effective slogan would be "Cars you want to make out in." Does it come standard with the latest Sade CD and Bradley Cooper? Because as one of the 80% of women who help make all car-buying decisions in the US, those are pretty much the only things that could overcome this company's blatant pandering to the basest of penile instincts. (Also? Totally grammatically incorrect.)

That and giving my deserving friends their jobs back.

(BTW, I want to make clear that I don't begrudge the models working this year's shows their employment. This is a corporate decision they had nothing to do with. I'm sure they are very nice, lovely girls and are specifically told they don't have to know anything about the cars - that isn't their fault. This is an issue with the poor marketing decisions made by Fiat.)

Chrysler's booth babe backlash

While walking around Cobo Hall on the first public day of the Detroit Auto Show last week, I did a double take when I saw the Fiat Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep team. Stunning? Yes. Gorgeous? Yes. Amazing dresses? Yes.

Making my life incredibly fcuking difficult? Yes.

I came across one beautiful blond wearing a silver, low-cut Herve Leger bandage dress like a second skin. Total knockout. Totally taking our job back to 1962.

Of course I do not begrudge these women for being beautiful; we're all models here after all and must meet at least a minimum level of attractiveness. I was truly surprised to see her dressed the way she was on a public day; outfits like that are usually reserved for press and preview - cocktail wear, if you will. What really bugged me was that after I chatted with her for a bit, it became obvious that she was not there to talk about the car and was merely there as a photo op. And then my head exploded.

I did see a bevy of Italian fashion models milling about in business suits, so I figured they were the product specialists and had the info. I was wrong. I asked around a bit here and there and here's what I was told about the Fiat sitch...

Last year's Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep team was canned. Even the stunningly gorgeous ones. All of the incredibly knowledgeable ones. Each and every talented and experienced presenter now out of a job.

Fiat, being a European company, wanted a European feeling to their displays so they replaced the team with pure eye candy. Problem is, this isn't Europe. Here in the good ol' USA women buy 60% of new cars and 80% of us are involved, singly or jointly, in making car buying decisions. And while we like talking with attractive people (human nature being what it is) we're not all that interested in taking photos with beautifully coiffed, designer-clad LA models.

So anyway, last year's awesome team was replaced with these new European-esque babes, and that would have been fine, I suppose, if they had been equally qualified and trained because hey, sometimes you just need to shake things up a little, right?

But that's not exactly what happened. My source says the even the business suited brunettes don't know their cars and their presentations were mediocre at best. Source said that it was obvious they had little public speaking experience.

(I also don't understand why they would let the talents of Nicole, the blond in this video, go to waste - she says she was a Porsche product specialist last year and those girls knew their shizz. This year Fiat has her posing - nothing more.)

So how exactly does this fcuk up my entire world, you ask? Goody, let me explain it to you. Women like Margery Krevsky have worked long and hard for many, many years to create an environment in which men (most of you, anyway) and women (pretty much all of you now) actually trust a good looking woman to tell you about your favorite cars. When you have a bunch of scantily-clad, uninformed and inexperienced models in the same position as the rest of us product specialists, it eats away at that trust.

Plus, y'all try to grab my ass and put a telephoto lens on my boobs a lot more when there are babes in mini dresses nearby.

Anyway, Chrysler must have heard the rumblings because by the last weekend of the show the silver mini dresses were gone and replaced with capri pants and sleeveless white blouses.

Before:

After:

This is, of course, merely a Band-Aid. Hopefully they will throw a product handbook at them in time for the next show. There's absolutely no reason why Fiat's crew can't retain their absolute gorgeousness, know their product inside out and give compelling presentations at the same time.