CES: What's Snooki Doing Here, Anyway?

Not to get too territorial here, but are we covering the celebrity beat, or the tech beat? Do the readers really care that Snooki is pitching a product? Do they want us to waste time chasing her, or instead, checking out the three or four new tech products we could preview in the same time it took to wait for her "appearance?"

 

So much has been written about the "decline" of CES. Numbers aside (and I'm told the number of people attending this year is actually expected to be up), more companies are, following Apple's lead, doing it for themselves. That's fine. But, please, let tech products speak for themselves. Justin Beiber? Come on. Is anyone out there really about to download or buy a product that has everything to do with technology, because a celebrity pitched it?

 

Ironically, CES has actually been a cool place to see famous people actually start technology companies. Dr. Dre launched headphones here. So did 50 Cent.  Will.i.am? A little overexposed, perhaps, but his knowledge of the Salesforce.com social product was impressive.

 

This year, LL Cool J will announce his own company.  Why hip-hop seems to have a lock on actual CES tech products is for another post, but it's far more worth my time to see someone famous actually launch a product, and far less to see someone stumping for something just to draw a paycheck.

 

If CES does go away, it will too bad for the Dr. Dres and 50s out there who have a platform to show something cool.  That's legitimate tech PR.  For the Snookis of the world, it's just one less place to shill.  

 

The tech world won't know the difference.