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Palo Alto Networks has issued an apology after the company came under fire for dressing its event hostesses in branded lampshade headwear.
Palo Alto senior leadership issued an apology following a “marketing decision” that saw happy hour attendees at this month’s Black Hat in Las Vegas greeted by hostesses wearing branded lampshades.
The gimmick sparked backlash on social media after a photo of the incident was shared online by a LinkedIn user.
CISO and founder of the Rose CISO Group, Olivia Rose, addressed the wording in the apologies, pointing out the lack of reference to how “incredibly offensive and demeaning” the move was.
Rose also said that she had received messages from female Palo Alto staff who said they feared calling out the decision.
“Palo Alto should also be made aware that I have personally received multiple messages from women at the company who were too scared to speak up about this decision,” she said.
“Quite a bro culture going on there, sounds like.”
An apology by CEO Nikesh Arora was posted on the cyber security firm’s website, acknowledging that the decision was “unacceptable”.
“The misguided attempt to welcome guests with branded lampshade-wearing hostesses was not consistent with our values. I appreciate you not judging us on this isolated event, and I want to reassure you of our continued commitment to and celebration of inclusion and diversity,” he said.
Arora added that the company has investigated how the incident occurred, reviewed brand-representation guidelines and established a mechanism in which management will review all “external-facing brand representations until further notice”.
Palo Alto chief marketing officer KP Unnikrishnan also issued an apology, taking full responsibility for what he called a “misjudgement” and an “unfortunate decision” that was not in line with company values.
“Please accept my heartfelt apologies for this regrettable incident,” he said.
Black Hat partner and event producer CyberRisk Collaborative also addressed the issue, saying that it was not involved in the planning of the marketing stunt.
“Upon arrival to the event, our team became aware of several females from the facility event staff that were dressed in a manner that contravened CRC’s strict guidelines and policies on theme, staging and attire,” said CyberRisk Collaborative.
“We immediately raised our concerns with the organisers, removed our signage, and apologised to our members who were in attendance.
“CyberRisk Collaborative and CyberRisk Alliance were not involved in planning the event with the venue staff and had no prior knowledge of these elements of the event staging.”
CyberRisk Collaborative apologised for the incident, adding it was a first for the company, and said that it would be conducting internal reviews and updating its teams on its “strict policies and guidelines for staging events with our partners, policies designed to reflect the powerful diversity of our community and our core values of respect, equality, and inclusion”.
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