Susannah shares this snip from Shift online:
Back in April of 2000, Shift Magazine ran a feature on Booth Bunnies, the girls hired to "man" Comdex booths with big smiles and short skirts. The second-last paragraph of the article reads: "As the computer industry evolves and continues to market itself more professionally, booth models are becoming more invisible, showing up for work in khakis and polo shirts. Soon, they won't need to show up at all."
Wishful thinking. Sure, at Comdex in Toronto last year, there was only a handful. (They were still there.) But the videogame industry has gone the opposite direction — as professional gaming gains momentum, events are evolving into Football-style spectacles. To wit: This page collects the "E3 girls", and they look much more buxom, skimpily-dressed and sexualized than the leggy Vana Whites that appeared in Shift's 2000 "Booth Bunnies" photographs. Much as custom car mags shoot celebrity "Import Models" for their covers, I wouldn't be surprised to find celebrity gaming girls popping up within the next year or two.
