The American cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks recently dug a lampshade shaped hole for itself during a Black Hat event in Las Vegas. Maybe Lampshade Merch is the latest hot trend but surely they were never intended to be put on women’s heads? Just to be completely clear, these are not mannequins.

Certainly the women who’ve condemned the “Bro Culture” at the firm didn’t appreciate it. One post states, “So we women are nothing more than props to you?” The Register called it a misogynistic marketing gimmick.

I’m a fan of the surreal so it all left me wondering if something like this could have ever worked? A professional performing artist posted online to suggest that the balance between creativity and equality could have been reached by using both female and male “live statues”, while taking care not to “over-undress” either.

The Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora must have hoped that what happens in Las Vegas really would stay in Las Vegas. But not the case. Despite the walking lighting, the optics of this didn’t look good. Arora has since come out and said that it “was not consistent with our values” with the CMO saying it was “tone deaf.” I’m sure that a deep and prolonged period of navel gazing will occur and something like this will never happen again at the firm.