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anyway, back to the topic, i thought we had once girls with linux related picture/logo somewhere on their bodies? wereN't those chicks? :)
i personally won't like FLOSS chicks to be those taking cloths off. I want to see chicks who use FLOSS, not just posing with any distro or DVDs. Then a nice short interview will really help. Should i look for some here in Germany? let me know how i can help.
Unless you ever want to sell to an audience that isn't composed entirely of (a) heterosexual men and (b) other people who never draw attention to their failure to be heterosexual men. If there are people who are open about that failure in the audience though... less great idea.
I am a big fan of your work as an advocate of Open Source, and as a contributing developer to important projects...
I've been mulling over your post, and trying to articulate why I have a problem with what you've said.
Mary summed it up well. Chicks sell - to heterosexual men.
I once responded to a suggestion that we needed 'booth babes' at an expo by saying,
"hey - I'm happy to be on the stand, but I'm not wearing lycra"
my other response was,
"yeah sure, so long as we can have semi-naked booth boys... oh hang on, maybe not, we're meant to be promoting freedom and diversity too."
FLOSS is great, but I don't really think it has anything to do with gender or sexuality. I think it has more to do with freedom, equity and diversity.
For example, I find ubuntu's imagery pretty compelling. They've used groups of smiling people, connected by holding hands, and diverse in gender and ethnicity.
Sex sells certain products to certain demographics...
cheers
Donna
I don't think any increased sales volume is worth that message.
@wahlau: yes, your wife, your friends, etc. they're all "foss girls" and might as well be profiled, I think. I never suggested for people to dress up sexily or take their clothes off - you don't see those in cigarette or liquor ads either...
@mary: re: audience. I think most people are happy to use FOSS at home, save for the hetrosexual males that are hooked on games :P
@donna: I think it'd be a great idea if you were a booth babe. And yes, lets skip the lycra. Dress tastefully, like you normally are, and that in itself will sell. If you're after semi-naked booth boys, that can also be useful, I don't see why not... (I was never suggesting semi-naked booth girls :P)
Lets all remember, I only provided an observation of what E3 and so on had. Tight fitting clothes on ladies, no big deal. Good looking clothes on regular OSS users that aren't super models I think will also work just as well
@mary again: I don't think we're talking about bright pink attire. Ever been to the car festivals? Or big PC ones?
In fact, a good example is the recent Windows WOW campaign. Seen the folk that they've got standing around at train stations and shopping malls? Microsoft clearly doesn't think there's much to anything wrong with such "advertisments"
Whether the increased sales volume is worth such a message (if even people take it that way - i.e. lets go by the 80-20 pareto principle here) is highly debatable
@anonymous: tsk tsk.
@all: why the sudden late reply? did this hit linuxchix or something in a bad way?
Remember, beauty is subjective. In my eyes, a redhead with a million freckles and a podgy stomach is infinitely more attractive than a plain blonde with a flat stomach. Also, has anyone considered that maybe celebrities use Linux? What if we could get them onboard?
As for the WOW campaign, I found myself thinking about some of those things that's more wow(!) than WOW. And once I did use Vista (forced to, was on the new laptop which replaced a dead desktop) I quickly found a LInux Live CD and rebooted.