Glamour Dims as Hecklers Hit the Auto Show

[groovedaddy]

Just a year ago, working as a product presenter at an auto show was a pretty straightforward job. You stood next to a vehicle, you called it a marvel of engineering, style and comfort and then you fielded softball questions like, “What does this baby cost?”

But that was before the bailout. Now that the government has helped General Motors and Chrysler stave off bankruptcy with billions of dollars in loans, these companies are finding somewhat hostile crowds at their exhibits. Which leads to scenes like the one on Friday at the New York auto show, where a blond woman in a tight black dress stood on a rotating platform and pitched the sporty Dodge Circuit, one of five electric cars that Chrysler is developing.

Donald Han, an accountant from Queens, sounded unmoved. “Why now?” he asked the woman, rather curtly, once she had finished her patter. “How come you’ve got to nearly go bankrupt before you come out with a car like this?”

Long a glamorous showcase for carmakers, auto shows have lately become a place for buyers and gawkers to vent. Few of the attendees at the Javits Center, where the New York show runs until Sunday, will ever encounter a top executive from G.M. or Chrysler. But all of them get within heckling range of the presenters and for some, that is good enough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/automobiles/autoshow/14auto.html?th&emc=th

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. lol. good for the hecklers...feel sorry for the rotating platform women though

[maxsolomon]

2. "i'm all that stands between you and the pitchforks"

thus spake obama.

the people need to see justice, or a mea culpa.

[MADem]

3. Jeez, like the blonde in the tight dress is the CEO, or something.

The poor thing is a temp worker and her feet probably hurt. She's memorized a script, she wants to "act" someday and this little halfassed job is making ends meet. I think people would would heckle someone who is plainly a low-wage, temp worker are complete asses. They're too lazy to go picket the corporation, or even write a "strongly worded letter" to the editors of a few papers, so instead, the berate a woman who falls somewhere under the bottom of the totem pole. Real classy, that:

It does not seem to matter that these women — they are nearly all women, most of them young and attractive — work part time for marketing firms and talent agencies that have contracts to run the exhibits. Many know little about the car companies they are working for beyond the scripts they have memorized.

“I try to explain that we’re not involved in corporate decisions, so complaining to us doesn’t really make a lot of sense,” said Kerri Moss, standing on a large turntable next to a Jeep 4X4 Laredo, a Chrysler product. Recently laid off from her job as a teacher, she is trying to earn some money on the car show circuit, which runs from September to May. “And if that doesn’t work, I tell them we’re doing the best we can.”

Often, that does not work either. One G.M. presenter said a woman told her the company was responsible for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. The logic went like this: if G.M. made more fuel-efficient cars, the country would not need so much oil, and if the country did not need oil, United States troops would never have invaded.

“I didn’t say anything,” recalled the presenter, who like many others here declined to give her name because she is not supposed to speak to the news media. “What can you possibly say? ‘Thanks?’ ”

Even if they ignore the snide comments and occasional jeers, presenting for an ailing car company just is not as fun as working for one that is thriving. The G.M. and Chrysler spaces are smaller and less flashy than they were a year ago.

...

[Mopar151]

6. Anger without reason, total lack of concept..

:rant: It's for sure that some folks take odd notions. They don't have a CLUE how the world works,:banghead: or have the flowcharts in their muddled minds all backwards like a dry drunk. And they really could care less about facts - they want to BELEIVE, because it's so much easier than all that smarty-pants thinkin' stuff, and they do not have to question their predujices. To them, it is only right to saw the facts up and fit them around their beleifs like bricks around a tree in the sidewalk. Their split -second perceptions are far more meaningful to them than careful measurement and well analysied data. Meaningless flaws become huge problems, concepts that are hard for them to grasp, like geometric error, are buried until they rise from the pit and bite you on the ass like a police dog!
:argh: And I've seen this from PhD's to the janitor. :mad:
How do I know this? I'm a machinist,:eyes: 30 years in the trade in R=D, small lot production,thermal spray, composities, moldmaking, automation, industrial and aircraft repair. This stuff used to make me blow up like the Godfather at times. Now, I tell the boss (I'm on layoff just now) "All I ask is 5 minutes to explain why you;re crazy - after that, unless it involves (my) blood, arrest, or pain, it's all by the hour! :yoiks:

[groovedaddy]

7. I throw the "Tea Parties" into this category also. Just pissed about taxation isn't good enough.

I've worked in a few public school systems and a few private, and I can say with certainty that teaching/developing critical thinking skills is horribly lax.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Why don't they go heckle AIG instead? How about Bank of America? nt

[Politicalboi]

5. These poor women

It won't be long till the tea baggers mob them too. And this woman I guess thought the cars name was Bush. LOL!

Often, that does not work either. One G.M. presenter said a woman told her the company was responsible for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. The logic went like this: if G.M. made more fuel-efficient cars, the country would not need so much oil, and if the country did not need oil, United States troops would never have invaded.


Silly Frepper, don't she know we went over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here.