Letter from CES: Want to Get People into Your Phone Charger Booth? Bring Naked Painted Women (NSFW)

An inordinate amount of CES 2013 is dedicated to the cell phone accessories market, which is totally chill even if it surprised me at first. But with so many booths, it takes a lot to stand out. That's why I have to give props to iDevice power supply and accessory maker Hyper for not messing around and putting a trio of painted models into their booth.

I mean, damn, that's one way to get a crowd.

Now, I'm not sure how the models connect to Hyper's products. Perhaps we're supposed to think of them both as colorful and sleekly designed? Or perhaps it's a commentary on how all the gadget fetishism of CES sometimes makes you forget about regular ol' meatspace.

In any case, it got me and probably plenty others writing about it, so I suppose the plan worked, even if there were way more people staring at the women than looking at products. I've heard a couple people comment that there aren't as many booth babes at CES this year as years past, which said couple people also posited may be a play to make the show more accessible to women. I'm not sure if the booth girl population has dropped, but it's certainly smaller than at other exhibitions I've been to. It's a nice thing, as it clears up a lot of the gawking at various booths. But then there's this. I guess at a show this big, you gotta try something to stand out.