Online outrage over 'sexist' hostess lampshade outfits, Indian-origin CEO responds

A US-based company has comeunder fire for its “sexist” display of hostess lampshade outfits at an event recently. The online outrage started when somebody shared a picture from the event, showing two women posing with company-branded lampshades on their heads. The imagesoon garneredattention but for all the wrong reasons.

The outrage eventually prompted a response from the company, and its CEO who hasissued an apology, adding that what happened was “unacceptable.”

The incident is from an event called CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour event, which was sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, at the Black Hat conference.

As soon as the picture of the dummy models was shared on social media, people were quick to express their discontent.

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Among them is Olivia Rose, founder and Chief Information Security Officer of RoseCISO Group who took toLinkedIn and wrote, “Shame. Shame. Shame on you,” adding, “So we women are nothing more than props to you? We are only at BlackHat to be lampshade holders?? Are those intended to represent bright ideas inside our heads or… just light bulbs? Shame on you. Just shame. Do better. It’s really not that hard.”

The idea of women dressed in these outfitsseems to be inspired by the "booth babes" from the early Consumer Electronics Show in the 1960s, the BBC reported.

Back then it was common to hire women as hostesses at events mostly attended by men. By the 1990s, using scantily clad women as attractions started facing huge backlash, and by the 2010s, this practice had mostly ended.

Indian-origin CEO responded with an official apology

The company’s Indian-origin CEO Nikesh Arora issued an apology soon after the outrage. “Let me be clear: what occurred was unacceptable. We could have, and should have, done better. We will do better,” he said in a post on LinkedIn.

“Investigated how the error occurred and addressed the issue within our event team and the entire marketing organisation to ensure that we consistently follow our marketing guidelines,” he added.

Read the entire apology here.

While most people appreciated the CEO's quick response to the matter, a few said this idea should never have been considered in the first place.

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One user wrote, “I feel like someone with a brain should've stopped this when was actually live. What does that say for everyone working there? We wait for our prompt leader to send an email?! This reminds me of Beauty and the beast, where everyone was under a curse and the villagers didn't care as well.”

Another person added, “This thing is, to get this to the conference floor, multiple people would have signed off on this which means your company really failed the smell test. This is not just a marketing problem. And this is more than a diversity problem, it's a misogyny problem.”

Palo Alto Networks is an American multinational company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company deals with cybersecurity and helps organisations prevent cyber breaches.

(With inputs from agencies)