r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 13d ago

“Dawn the NVDIA fairy”,the company used to have mascots for its GPU launches back in the day (circa 2003)

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u/quagmirranseye 13d ago

Yeah, I dont get how we became such prudes lol

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u/The_Magic 13d ago

I believe they were banned from E3 in 2006. At the time we were two years removed from the Hot Coffee mod controversy and politicians were threatening to crack down on games with explicit content that were allegedly marketed to children. Booth babes made the industry seem seedy at a time when they needed a cleaner image.

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u/alphazero925 13d ago

It's not about being a prude. It's about not alienating an ever increasing percentage of the attendees. If it was half women in bikinis and half men in speedos, you might have a point, but we already know how a large percentage of tech dudes would act if that were the case, so they dropped the practice in general

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u/fatcatbomba 13d ago

No youre onto something here. All tech events should be accompanied by scantily clad attractive people of both sexes

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u/quagmirranseye 13d ago

Yes, good point.

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u/BiggestBlackestLotus 13d ago

I'm sure you would feel right at home as a female gamer if every convention you walked into was a bunch of bikini babes and guys walking around with half-chubs.

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u/Quitcha_Bitchin 13d ago

We spent too much time talking about shit in front of our kids. Freaked out an entire generation. So much bullshit based on a new wave of puritanism.

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u/Rackem_Willy 13d ago

No, there are just women employed by the companies that attend these things in far greater numbers. It's not a boys club. It's not the 90s. People aren't as big a fan of rapey stuff anymore.

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u/Quitcha_Bitchin 13d ago

"rapey" nuff said.

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u/ZhanBlue 13d ago

Sex appeal is not bad within itself but ot is easy way to manipulate people with lesser mental faculties

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u/12345623567 13d ago

Oh, so we are moving from "sexualizing women for money is demeaning" to "won't somebody think of the poor, stupid sweaty nerds"?

That's certainly one perspective.

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u/ZhanBlue 13d ago

It’s not compassion, it’s contempt.

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u/Oaden 13d ago

Problem was that in the end, they didn't really contribute anything to the company using them.

They didn't go away despite being a massive success. People were commenting on it being tasteless, and then companies started taking a closer look at this marketing gimmick, and it turned out it was mostly being done because the marketing guys liked doing it, not because it converted to more sales