Feature: Modern car models much more than just a pretty face

Glamour girls have attracted buyers to cars since auto shows began in the early 20th century, but this long-standing tradition is under attack as businesses and advocacy groups alike have grown uncomfortable with the use of women's bodies as a driver for foot traffic.

Yang Xueliang, director of public relations for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd, a Chinese private automaker, said on his microblog last week that he was informed by the organizing committee of the Shanghai Automotive Exhibition that "auto show models are to be banned this year."

A Xinhua report earlier this month exposed a father's concerns over bringing his 10-year-old son to automotive exhibitions. "He loves cars," said the father. "But it was no 'automobile show.' It was a 'body show.'"

U.S. activists are displeased as well, as a viral photo of a Fiat advertisement depicted a car and the text -- "If it were a lady, it would get its bottom pinched," which was subsequently "fixed" by an activist spray painting the words: "If this was a lady, she'd run you down."

Mounting pressure on organizers has resulted in a change in the way car models, originally dubbed "glamour girls," have been presented to the public.

Margery Krevsky, who founded Productions Plus in 1981, saw that most of the people standing beside cars that she thought were "wonderful" were just models. That disappointed her, and as a result, she decided to found a company based on the idea that a "glamour girl" needed a fundamental change.

"My idea was, have very intelligent, well-spoken, and knowledgeable people beside the cars, both men and women. Usually attractive, dressed very well, and representing the brand," she said. "They can talk about technology, the automation, horsepower, design, or even the culture of the car."

More than 30 years later at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, the industry has changed with Krevsky's guidance. The glamour girls are gone. Krevsky's idea struck a chord with car manufacturers, who immediately began using her firm's services.

Today, glamour girls have been renamed product specialists, and they go through rigorous training and must pass extensive knowledge-based testing in order to be a specialist.

"The car cannot talk so it needs a second entity beside it. The human being, the attractive girl, the attractive gentleman really adds to the car by being able to talk about it," said Krevsky.

"It's a very fine synergy, a fine relationship, people have an emotional and psychological connection to the car," she said. "It's the person that talks about it that makes it very clear that this car can be very important in the future." ( "They are very very comfortable talking about cars," Krevsky added.

Tiffany Doorn, a product specialist for Porsche, is one of Krevsky's product specialists.

"We are trained by Porsche cars in North America every year on the cars," Doorn, sharply dressed with immaculately tailored look, told Xinhua at the Porsche booth.

"Porsche specifically is a very technical car, so they want not only women that are attractive, because that is appealing to the public, but also people who are well-knowledged on the car," she said. "We're important to be here because we're good customer service. We can relate to the customer."

The product specialist describes her training as extensive, but in case she doesn't know the answer to a question, Porsche has equipped her with an iPad when she needs to look up an elusive tidbit of information.

Doorn wasn't always a product specialist, she used to be a successful model, winning the title of Miss Washington 2006 in the Miss USA Pageant, but she always had higher aspirations as she had a degree with a major in communication and an emphasis in public relations.

"We know about the product. For me, personally, I have a passion for the product, so I love talking about all of them and I know it, and I like showing that with the public," she said.

Doorn soon went back to work, schmoozing with members of the press and interested parties from other car manufacturers trying to get a peek at competitors' work.

Eventually, Krevsky sees the Chinese market adopting product specialist models over car models as the industry evolves.

"I think it is the wave of the future. Very attractive people, but certainly, people who can talk car. Because the car is the star," she said. Endi