Niki: My name is Niki.
Phoebe: My name is Phoebe.
Niki: And our topic today is, is it
appropriate to use showgirl as a commercial strategy?
Phoebe: And I’m the affirmative side.
Niki: And I’m against showgirl. This is our
outline. First we’ll talk about being a showgirl. And then we’ll discuss the,
um, impact that showgirls brought to the economy. And this will divided into
three sections, um, which is exhibition economy, social cost and social
economy.
Phoebe: Before we start, I want to ask you
guys that if you ever noticed those showgirls in the exhibition?
Monica: Of course, that’s the only thing
you notice.
Phoebe: And what’s your first impression on
them?
Monica: Woa! Sexy!
Phoebe: ok, Everyone like most of the
people might say that all showgirls need is their beautiful appearance without
any, um…they own this career without any professional knowledge, however it’s
not true, according to a proficient showgirl, Pei-Pei, who has devoted herself
to this career for eight years, and she says that showgirl must undergoes
series training just like those models.
I think is too thoughtless and shallow if one measures showgirl as
only “sex-selling and smile-selling,” I think this career still needs lots of
professional skills and training which not every random young girl on the
streets can engage in. Those showgirls are not flower vases or sugar babes who
are coquettish. More importantly, the content from unrolling beauty is just the
added value; the most important thing is that they all agree unanimously that
this work is helpful to their future career because they accumulated experience
and cultivated the knowledge of public relations and marketing from this work.
And they are able to experience professional ability on work and attitude
toward work.
Compare to Ad models, I think they have no actual difference with
showgirls. As showgirls, Ad models also draw males’ sights in the manufactures.
Plus, speaking of the professional aspect, they both possess trained skills as
well as proper working attitude.
And this pyramid shows the status height of showgirls and other
similar works. We can see that showgirls’ status is in the very low class of
this system. In addition to the title differences, I think they don’t have
actual or obvious differences.
For example, Compare to Ad models, I think they have no actual
difference with showgirls. Just as showgirls, Ad models also draw males’ sights
in the manufactures. And speaking of the professional aspect, they both possess
trained skills and proper working attitude.
If you really want to compare these two jobs’ differences, I think
the most obvious difference is that showgirls introduce products with buyers
face to face while Ad models show themselves on the screen or poster; there is
no actual interaction between buyers and Ad models. And except for ability to
make professional poses, showgirls have to steel their capability of hosting,
dancing and they need to capture buyers by their eloquence.
Showgirls are generally considered to be a bunch of people with vain
glory and shallowness. However, to showgirls, maintaining figure not only
serves the function of attracting or pleasing the males but, as work ethic,
it’s a professional behavior as well. It’s just like teachers who have further
education when they off their works; showgirls should act properly on their
station, and uphold their body capital in the best state. And I think their
uniforms that provided by company are not particularly cleavage; let’s think,
in fact, those girls in the city, like this and this, they are just the normal
girls walking on the streets, they wear more daring and cleavage clothes for
fashion, right? So those differences are just made out by social stereotype.
Niki: um, although showgirls may seem to be a glamorous career,
there are actually a lot of downsides of being a showgirl. And one of them is
physical damage. Being a showgirl means you have to be thin and pretty. Every
girl that applies for this job knows that, because the companies make it very
clear. Um, for the usual exhibitions, they want their showgirls to be 160~165
cm in height. And weight under 50 kilograms. And for car exhibitions, 165 cm is
the basic height when they’re auditioning showgirls. So, some girls are born
tall and thin, so they got the job, but, but when they start to work with other
showgirls at the exhibition, they will start to think that, oh, um, they’re all
thinner and prettier than me, if I don’t lose weight, I will look so fat between
them. So, um, and also they have to wear short skirts and tight dress, so they
cannot gain weight, or it will be obvious that, um, they can’t fit in the dress
the company gave them. So, a lot of showgirls choose to stay in shape by not
eating, and some of them even took pills that have strong side effects, um, to
lose weight. Um, they will secretly compete with each other, and they cannot
stand the idea that they’re fatter than one another. You can see from this
photo that they’re all wearing the same clothes and shoes, so, it’s pretty
obvious to see, um, which one is thinner and which one is fatter. They pursue
skinny bodies, and, but this is very sick and unhealthy. And in fact, some of
them even, um, some of them even have anorexia. Another damage caused, uh, is
caused by high heels. High heels are a must for showgirls when they’re at work.
And they have to stand in high heels several hours a day. And they’re a lot of
times when they have to dance in those incredibly high shoes. And this will
cause a lifelong damage to their spine. So they can no longer participate in
these kinds of work anymore. Um, and wearing high heels also harm the Achilles
tendon, um, here. And in the year 2010, there was a girl whose Achilles tendon
broke during the exhibition, because she wore high heels for too long. And she
had to walk with a stick for the next six months. If being a showgirl means
ruining a healthy body, do you think it is worth it? Because I don’t think so.
Phoebe: Now I’m going to talk about the exhibition economy. There
are about 206 exhibitions in Taiwan every year, and it attracts many buyers and
consumers visiting. Here is a statistical data, and it shows that the growth
rates of Information Technology Month in 2011 to 2013, each year has
outstanding growth. And lots of researchers claim that in addition to those progressive
designs and innovations, showgirls definitely have contribution to this
outstanding accomplishment.
According to a research, the promotion activities with showgirls
have an important effect on the purchase intention. Showgirls’ assist in selling
do affect and attract a large number of visitors, activating the atmosphere and
increasing consumers’ buying. And their physical attractiveness also increases
costumers’ intention to stay for having interaction with showgirls. And
showgirls do not necessarily attract costumers’ who have pure intentions to buy
their desired products, but they do attract buyers who love to ogle showgirls
or who just want to spend their free time and wandering around in the
exhibition. And showgirls even capture costumers who are originally not going
to buy things.
Thanks to these reasons, salesmen are able to make use of much more
chance and time introducing the products and then bringing about customers’
desire for purchase. Then at last creates the outstanding business achievement.
Niki: OK, in this part of my presentation, I will show you a few
examples of how using showgirl in the exhibition is inefficient. The first one
is brand marketing. Using showgirls at exhibitions has become a trend, um, in
the past few years. And companies realized that showgirls can attract customers
to their stands. So, all of them started to hire showgirl. It is true that
showgirls can attract, uh, showgirls can create an atmosphere that makes the
customers enjoy. But, when everyone is doing the same thing, then no one is
special anymore. Uh, if a company wants to stand out from other companies, and
let people recognize them at, uh, in an instance, they have to have a strong
brand image. Especially for those new companies that just um, joined in the
exhibition recent years. Showgirls can introduce the products and interact with
customers, but they can’t sell the brand for the company. So actually, using
showgirls at the exhibitions cannot let customers remember the company’s brand.
So this is not a smart strategy at all. Also, using showgirls eliminated
companies’ chance to communicate with different types of customers. Showgirls
can attract male customers to the exhibition, it’s, it is clear in this photo,
taken at Taipei video games exhibition. So, the companies conveniently assume
that all of their customers are males, and continue to use showgirls at their
stands, hoping to increase revenue. So they stop exploring new customers, which
is a fatal mistake for every company. Um, before I go to my next point, I want
to show you a short clip. Ok, did you guys notice anything strange in this
video?
Monica: yeah, that’s a man. That’s a man!
Max: The model’s a man.
Niki: No! Ok, so my point is that, um, the camera always aims at the
showgirl instead of the car. But clearly the car was what the company wanted to
sell. In this 30 seconds clip, the camera only stayed on the car for 3 seconds.
This shows that the customers’ attention were never on the product itself. Um,
just as the clip I just showed you, showgirls are always the center of the
spotlight in exhibitions. People stare at them because they’re young,
beautiful, and of course, they have extremely sexy bodies. Um, basically, the
customers see showgirls not as living people, but as, uh, products for them to
purchase. So, when showgirls are being commoditized, they actually outshine the
products that companies intend to sell. Just like these pretty Barbie dolls.
And then, um, Phoebe and I are going to compare social cost with social
economy. And I’m going to start with social cost. Um, we can see showgirls as a
formal career, but it doesn’t change the fact that these girls are making money
out of their bodies and youth. They’re actually catering to man’s desire by
showing their body parts. And this is considered to be degrading of women. And
also, there are a lot of people that are, in Taiwan, that are conservative
about sex. And because showgirls are very open about showing their bodies, this
could cause conflict between them. And those conservative people cannot avoid
seeing showgirls because, um, even if they don’t go to exhibitions, because,
um, the TV news report about showgirls all the time. And also, the media show
showgirl to the public as a career that is very admirable. They always comment
on their bodies and uh, yes. And young girls may take this in a wrong way. They
will think that they have to be as thin as showgirls to be successful, and to,
and they will only be loved if they have big boobs like showgirls. And these
are all social cost that showgirls uh, bring.
Phoebe: For starter, I’d like to talk briefly about Pierre Bourdieu.
He is a famous French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher, and he
brings up the idea of “body capital.” To put it simple, it means each kind of
working class should cultivate their bodies to expectation. Like, people have
more confidence in those strong and muscular men when it comes to strength required
work. On the other hand, those beautiful sales assistants in the department
stores, they are more convincing to the costumers because of their pretty
appearance. We can apply this idea in terms of showgirls. They’re not selling
sex but cultivate their body capital.
Most of showgirls have high income. And plus the broader consumption
freedom, they become a group of new nobles of consumer society. The high
quality of their economic capital promotes their quality and ability of buying;
and then promotes the development of economy which all in all is a positive
circulation of marketing. So, I think showgirls absolutely create double
business opportunity.
Niki: Any question?
Jihee: Do you have any replacement for
showgirl?
Niki: Like I said, the brand marketing,
they can emphasize on their brand, what are they different from others, what’s
special about their company, instead of just attracting customers.
Kevin: I have a small question for your
part, because you have mentioned that the showgirls make no help for promoting
the brand, right? But in fact, for example, I’ve been to the Taipei Auto show just
one week ago, I think the real situation is not really as you say because, for
example, the showgirls, they were not just standing by the car, they actually
host a lot of activities to have interaction with the audiences, so I think
they somehow they really make a great impression on the audiences of the brand
itself, so I’m asking for your comments.
Niki: Because I think like if you went to
an Auto exhibition, every brand is using showgirls, they’re all doing the same
things, there are no difference between them. So you can’t tell by showgirls
how, if you see a showgirl you can’t immediately connect to the brand, that
what I’m saying.
Kevin: Thank you.
Niki: Thank you.
Tim: Both of you I have questions. For
Phoebe, I’d like you to explain what the concept of Bourdieu, the French
sociologist, and how can his concept related to positivity?
Phoebe: Because he mentioned about the idea
of, do you get the idea of the body capital?
Tim: Yes.
Phoebe: Like, lots of critiques they judge
showgirls, and they also judge the company they shouldn’t use showgirls,
because it’s like a sex-selling thing, and if you use showgirls, like Niki
says, you’ll just on their breasts button or something like that. But I think
his idea explains the situation, I think it’s not negative if they use their
body as a tool to help the business achievement.
Tim: ok, for Niki, I wonder that how would
you think about the sex worker, because no matter the showgirl or Ad model or
sex worker, they’re in the structure of sex industry, so do you think that the
sex worker is just catering to men’s interest? And we should ban on it.
Niki: I’m not saying that we should ban on
it. Catering to men’s desire is just one part of them, in this presentation I
just want to emphasize that using showgirls is not the most useful strategy to
use in the exhibition.
Tim: I just want to say that you can leave
the taboo that about sex is bad. Thank you.
Monica: I got a question, I was talking to
Max here, and can be back to the title difference job? You know, like just in
the night club, most in Taiwan’s night club, the girls are dancing, there are
not dancer, they are not professional dancer, they dance horrible, ok whatever,
we call that showgirl, right? What do you say about those showgirls, they’re
dancing in the night club, they’re almost naked…?
Phoebe: Because the showgirls here we are
talking about is the phenomenon in Taiwan, because we know showgirl like in
foreign countries, they are not likewise.
Monica: No I’m just talking about the
showgirls in night clubs, what can you say about them, because they’re not,
they’re weird, just do you guys consider them showgirls or dancer.
Niki: The showgirl we talk about is those
that at the exhibition that help the company, and the girls in the night club I’m
not sure what they are…
Max: Maybe It’s similar because they…in the
night club
Monica: They really attract guy, and all
the guys just like … too much… ok whatever
Max: I’m wondering of you think that your
side using within sexuality to sell product will be relative to the last
presentation about social responsibility at the course of responsibility?
Niki: Yes, like the company hire the
showgirls because they want to make more profit but actually, some people might
still think it’s offending, showgirls standing there and, you know, using their
body to attract customers…
Max: I think it could ethically be
irresponsible because it’s potentially promote the second image of women that isn’t
healthy, maybe, I don’t know
Niki: Maybe, a little. Ok thank you
everyone.
