US company faces outrage over ‘sexist’ hostess lampshade outfits, CEO responds

A US company is being criticised for its “sexist” hostess lampshade outfits during an event. People are accusing the company of being tone-deaf. The outrage came after a picture from the event, showing two women posing with company-branded lampshades on their heads, went viral. The outrage also prompted a response from the company, and its CEO issued an apology, adding that what happened was “unacceptable.”
The incident occurred at an CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour event, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, at the Black Hat conference. As soon as the picture of the models made their way onto social media, people expressed their anger. Among them is Olivia Rose, a Security Maturity Strategist, who 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 firm’s 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. “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.
While most people appreciated the CEO’s address to the matter, a few said this idea should never have been considered.
An individual 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. I wrote extensively about the ‘booth babe’ problem I encountered upon moving to Europe – it looks like legacy US companies have kept the same old status quo when it comes to using women as a lure and characterising men as atavistic and ruled by their base needs.”
A third added, “This is not about diversity and inclusion, this is about sexism and misogyny.”
Palo Alto Networks is an American multinational company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company deals with cybersecurity and helps organisations prevent cyber breaches.
What are your thoughts on this lampshade outfit fiasco and the CEO’s response?