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Tech firm apologises for 'creepy' hostess lampshade outfits

The company-branded lampshades, which obscured the women's faces, have been called "creepy" and "sexist."

They were meant to draw attention to Palo Alto Networks' sponsorship of a “CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour” at the Black Hat conference. We are only at BlackHat to be lampshade holders?” asked executive advisor Olivia Rose in a LinkedIn post that eventually prompted Mr Arora’s apology. The idea for the outfits seems to have been inspired by the so-called "booth babes" of the early days of the Consumer Electronics Show, in the 1960s, where women were hired as hostesses at what were mostly male-attended events.

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