Santa Brings Strippers To Storefront Windows

By Susan Elaine Cooper

Santa Claus has something for everyone this Christmas, even those that made the naughty list. It seems the clothing brand XOXO had a promotion that involved women changing their clothes day and night in front of a crowd of spectators on New York’s 5th Avenue.

There were two beautiful young women that paraded around like the store window was their bedroom, doing playful things like jumping on the bed, brushing each others hair and even zipping each other up. The crowd, mostly male, shouted to them to get their attention, and even wrote notes to them, however the women were trained to ignore the crowd. This led the men to believe the women could not see them, making this event even more voyeuristic.

Holiday windows have always been an attraction in New York, but this “Christmas” window display literally stole all the traffic from even the very popular Macy’s window. The crowd response was mixed from the women, some saw it as too much for a street view, feeling it should have been restricted from general public viewing. Some women, however were inspired enough by the window to start their own public display of affection with a passionate kiss. One report was made to police, however the officers did not interfere with the successful holiday campaign.

While the holiday window seems to have been a success, their social media campaign was more of a bust (no pun intended). A twitter account was set up at @WatchMeXOXO which only yielded 324 followers, and their Facebook account that has more than 13,000 fans only received one or two likes on each post about the event.

What do you think? Was this a powerful social promotion or is it closer to “street corner” behavior?

How much do stores jack up ambient lighting to sell you HDTVs?

Posted by Sean Portnoy

Along with selling unknowing consumers $80 HDMI cables that they could buy online for a few bucks, HDTV retailers other longtime scam is to boost the brightness in their stores (including on the sets themselves) to entice buyers. Why? In part because bright screens can mask poor black-level performance on cheaper sets. But then some buyers are then surprised when sets that “pop” in a store appear far more muted when they are hooked up in the living room.

Adding a little bit of empirical evidence to back up this claim, HDGuru recently visited major retailers with an illuminance meter in hand to see just how much brighter their showrooms are compared to the average living room. While he measured 10 homes with light levels that ranged from 1.2 to 110.1 lux, the stores he visited measured: Best Buy, 180.3; Sears, 236.58; Target, 371.38; Walmart, 411.66; BJs, 412.13, and Costco, 742.77. You’ll notice that the stores that have sales people who specialize in home theater equipment (Best Buy and Sears) register far lower readings than the big-box and warehouse stores that don’t offer dedicated TV help. HDGuru theorizes that the amped-up levels at Target and Costco help the cheaper sets they sell look a lot better than their performance will be once you bring them home.

Of course, all stores will be more brightly lit than a typical home, but that doesn’t mean the TV department has to be as bright as the rest of the store. In fact, HDGuru’s measurement of the Magnolia Home Theater section of the Best Buy found a far more muted reading of 34.7 lux, like in a typical living room. Why the difference? The more expensive sets sold in the Magnolia showroom have superior black-level performance that can’t be properly displayed with the cheaper sets radiating in the other part of the store.

The morale: Don’t expect the HDTV you buy from a bricks-and-mortar retailer to have the same picture as it displayed in the store—and that’s necessarily a bad thing. Have you been disappointed with a new set after you’ve brought it home from a store? Let us know about your experience in the TalkBack section.