Thank you to VentureBeat‘s Jolie O’Dell for calling out voice-control company Voco for advertising their CES booth with disembodied female body parts and sex puns about the “V-spot.”
“Because Oral is better,” the ad promises, next to a shiny red lacquered mouth. Gross.
Here’s part of O’Dell’s much-needed rant:
Guys, this is why we don’t have more women in tech: It’s a cesspool. As long as we’re passing offensive schlock like this off as marketing for a major technology conference, we don’t deserve more women in tech.
Voco calls these ads “playful.” Maybe “playful” is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the beholder doesn’t think of women’s body parts as playthings. Maybe that kind of play isn’t in any way related to voice-control technology or consumer electronics – you know, the kind that aren’t sold at Babeland.
Or maybe they just pitched a journalist who isn’t in the mood to play those pubescent, sniggering games anymore.
Voco, I regret to inform you that I will be unable to visit your CES booth this year. I moreover regret that I will never review, recommend, or use your products, no matter how interesting and innovative they are. I most deeply regret that you don’t have enough respect for me to put yourself on my level and look at the world and your ads through my or anyone else’s eyes.
I regret that the only consumer or reviewer you care about reaching is the man who likes women’s disembodied sexy-parts. I regret that you don’t know any men who think women’s brains are sexy, too.
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