Tech firms are hiring models to enhance the ‘ambiance’ at holiday parties, report says

As the tech industry continues to address its own wave of sexual harassment scandals, a new report revealed some firms are hiring models to secretly attend their holiday parties.

The report, published first in Bloomberg, predicts there will be a “surprising influx of attractive women” at parties in the Silicon Valley.

Citing California modeling agencies, Bloomberg reports companies as large as Facebook and Google and some smaller firms are paying up to $200 per hour to seed their parties with “ambiance and atmosphere” models.

Whereas in the past, models were hired as hostesses or for other functions, Bloomberg reports the companies are now seeking to enhance “the fun, the atmosphere.”

“So far this year, his models have been asked to dress up in outfits based on “The Price Is Right” and like Elizabethan nobles or forest nymphs,” according to Bloomberg.

This weekend, Cre8 Agency is sending 30 models — 25 women and five men — to mingle with “pretty much all men” at a San Francisco gaming company’s party, according to Cre8 President Farnaz Kermaani.

Kermaani declined to name the company.

“The companies don’t want their staff to be talking to someone and think, ‘Oh, this person was hired to socialize with me,’ ” Kermaani told Bloomberg, adding models with his agency will attend seven parties in the same weekend.

Some companies request “cleavage and short-shorts,” the report said.

The tech industry, known for a lack of women, has taken heat after the report was published on Thursday.

“It's a problematic practice in an industry trying to attract more women engineers,” wrote Kif Leswing for Business Insider.

Adriana Gascoigne, CEO of Girls in Tech, told The Mercury News she found the report “highly disturbing.”

“It’s disappointing and deflating to see this news and see how it’s still spreading and how some companies and some people think it’s still OK to treat women this way,” she said. “It’s like buying women to exploit their bodies and their physical attributes.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Tech firms are hiring models to enhance the ‘ambiance’ at holiday parties, report says."