The Savvy Reason There Are Robot Strippers for CES We can't help but think this is a very smart move, but we also have questions.
By Stephen J. Bronner Edited by Dan Bova
Let's just get this out of the way: most women do not want to go to a strip club, especially during a business conference.
But, that's the intent behind Sapphire Las Vegas's introduction of -- we're really in the future now -- robot strippers to its stage during this year's CES.
"We were looking for something creative to do during CES that would sort of match what was happening in town," Sapphire Managing Partner Peter Feinstein told The Daily Beast in an article with the excellent headline, "Do Androids Cry After Stripping in Vegas for CES?"
He continued, "If you're six people from a company and there's two women and four guys, you can still [come] here and have some fun and see the robots and not feel like you have to be part of a strip club."
It's clear Sapphire doesn't take the whole thing too seriously. The club placed buckets for tips near the robots that read "MIT bound" and "Need money for batteries."
Of course, launching a stunt such as this around an expo is usually a surefire way to get media attention. But, it's also a smart strategy to come up with new things to appeal to potential new customers. CES attendees are in town to check out the latest technology, and may not want to spend the time gawking at scantily dressed women. This is giving customers what they want.
That is, if what they want are female-figured robots with security cameras for heads shaking their robutts. (The robots were created by an artist named Giles Walker as a statement on voyeurism.)
The plan seems to have been on target. After all, people weren't offended. Instead, they wanted more advanced stripper robots.
Related: CES 2018 Photo Gallery: Our Favorite Things We've Seen (So Far)
"I've seen robots do much more complicated things than these ones are doing now," a tech worker named Adam told The Daily Beast. "So I'm a little underwhelmed. You look at stuff on YouTube, I mean robots can operate on your brain and do really precise things now. These are a little too mechanical."
That's a good thing. After all, stripping is one of the few industries that hasn't been impacted by automation.
