The use of females in grip publicity pics

[James Connors]

anyone else noticed the amount of photos of girls with grip equipment attached to them by the manu's ? is it just me who thinks its a little bit condescending, as if to say "our gears so great, even the weak little girlies can use it!"

virtually every other photo involving cam gear has a guy, so i guess its nice to see the fairer sex for a change, but i can't be the only one to notice this :)

[Bob Costa]

Condescending or good use of visual communication?

[James Connors]

can it be both ? :)

[Bryan McCullough]

I always look at those and think they're trying to show that:

"Look! My breasts don't get in the way of this rig!"

VZ has one in particular where you can't even see the shoulder mount, it's totally covered up by some woman's chest.

But do I want them to start using models that more resemble me? (6 feet, 250 lbs.)


No. Stick with the pretty ladies.

[James Connors]

heh yeah, i'm not complaining from that aspect :D altho it would be nice to see sometimes how the rig would fit those of us who have spent a lot of time and effort toning our beer guts to perfection ;)

at least they don't go down the road of using obviously unaware model types who don't even know what they're wearing (at least the girls appear to be "realistic" people and not off the barbie assembly line most of the time :) )

[Aaron Koolen]

To be honest, when I see people selling gear that way, I'm less likely to by it. It reeks of that "used car salesman" feeling. It lacks subtlety and is so blatantly sad that I just go away.

Unless of course they're selling stuff for sexy babes, then it's understandable - but they're not, they're selling it for film and video geeks and we're all ugly.

Aaron

[Matthew Cherry]

????

I'm shallow...

More hot babes, more better.

[Terry Thompson]

I was wondering if they are trying to do two things at once.

1. Have something nice to look at (besides the rig).

2. To show the rig is light enough that it can be handled by the fairer sex.

In all my shooting with the Indicam I have only seen one young lady as a steadycam operator and she was Melanie Motiska at the Steadicam booth. She deserves to be there!

Tery

[Charles Papert]

There have been a few well-known Steadicam operators of the female persuasion; the biggest name is Liz Ziegler, who has credits including "Eyes Wide Shut". She's hauled around the big rigs for years, and is best known for her Valkyrie-styled custom vest (small pic of her here). Others include Janice Arthur, a 20+ year veteran operator; Laurie Hayball, who like Melanie has also "modeled" for Tiffen brochures, and Kelly Hernsdorf who is now married to MK-V owner Howard Smith. All of them have hauled 70 lb+ rigs around--keep that in mind, boys, if you choose to whimper about flying DV stabilizers!

[Shawn Murphy]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

...Liz Ziegler, who has credits including "Eyes Wide Shut". She's hauled around the big rigs for years, and is best known for her Valkyrie-styled custom vest (small pic of her here).

perhaps that site is down, here's another link in case it's permanently down:

http://www.moonbeach.com/film/Film_LizAward1.jpg

[Sean McHenry]

I seem to argue this point with my wife - does sex sell?

I keep pointing to the "Sweedish Bikini Team". Remember the gals in the fur bikinis. OK, most of us do but, what was the product they were selling? It was beer but who's?

And that's the point. We remember the gals in fur bikinis but we don't remember the product makers. Is that good advertising. Not to me. I enjoy a fine figure as much as any male but advertising like that gets me rather mad.

For the record, she is under them impression sex sells and I say it doesn't.

I was ESPECIALLY turned off by several episodes of that show with "the Donald". The idea that the women involved in the show seemed to think it was OK to exploit themselves to win. What have we ended up teaching our daughters?

OK, now I'm mad again.

SMM

[Caroline Greville]

I get you Sean.

Unfortunately sex does sell. Which says little for the pedigree of the human race. Fortunately, it can also sabotage, which makes me feel better. Maybe the balance will flip eventually. But when I see an example of what the majority of the human race is like I lose my optimism.

As for the advert discussed, I haven't seen it, but as a woman I can reveal that advertising that has: a) girls in bikinis b) men with beer guts c)men being laddish, all alienate me.

Maybe this new advertising ploy is them realising that they have an untapped market, women do make up 50% of the world's population. And the same advertising ploy certainly worked with cigarettes, something that used to be soley withing the male ranks but is now slightly dominated by women.

[Bill Porter]

I agree with Sean and Aaron. The Swedish bikini team did sell beer, but whose?

I too get offended when a "girlie" (i.e. a model) is thrown in to attempt to pander to male interest. Aaron used the "used car" comparison and I agree, because a used car salesperson will do any and every damn thing they can to get you to buy. They don't care about you or honesty or anything other than getting your money. Using cheesecake to try to get at my money makes my "used car" radar go off, and I start to wonder whether that same "we don't care about anything but getting your money" attitude permeates the company, for example, in terms of engineering or quality control or customer service (i.e. response to "Where is my order and why hasn't it shipped?" phone calls), service after the sale (i.e. honoring the warranty), etc.

There is nothing more indicative of a superior product than a "technical sale" - a factual explanation of how and why their product excels. Using sex, or attacking the competition, or even saying "So-and-so uses our gear, shouldn't you?!" (we all know $ponsorships are why big names endorse things), are signs of not having a product that can stand on its own just based on its own worth.

[Michael Gibbons]

I'm more amused by the trend than offended. As for halting the trend, well, pretty people have got to eat too. I'm niether more or less likely to buy something advertised in such a fasion. My purchases, like those of most video people, are always research driven. A pretty girl may well get my notice though, and if the product she is sporting turns out to be good, I might very well buy it.
As for the sweedish bikini team, it was budwieser, and I don't even drink.

[K. Forman]

I think you guys might be missing the big picture here... I've seen our own Charles Pappert in pics with his steadi cam, and I've seen the bikini models with steadi cam rigs- they win ;)

Sorry Charles :)