Why all the attention to detail? Easy: these specialists are on the front lines in the battle for sales. “Sixty percent of people who attend an auto show are in the market to purchase or lease a vehicle that year,” Marci claimed. “And 40 percent of those people are actually impacted by their visit. So the people you have staffing these booths have the opportunity to either confirm or sway a decision.” A vapid blonde chained to a carnivorous feline and a rote script will have little effect on today’s savvy, selective, Web-educated consumer. “They come prepared,” Marci said. “So our specialists have to be trained.”

Still, the stereotypical Booth Babe isn’t a total relic. Some Italian supercar-makers still feature them. And many automotive brands employ a special category of representatives called hostesses during the press days preceding big shows, to help make their vehicles more . . . photogenic to journalists. When we asked Audi’s Santilli how she chooses these women, she laughed. “I usually enlist some of the guys in the office to help me. They enjoy that job.”

In our quest to find out more about the secret life of an auto-show product specialist, we gave a call to Tracie Juncaj. Tracie is about to start her 18th auto-show season. After stints with Honda, Chevy, and Subaru—and a job working rally races as a Pirelli girl—she’s currently a product specialist for Cadillac. Tracie was kind enough to answer a few of our invasive questions. Highlights from our conversation below:

Brett Berk: Obviously the world of product specialists has changed quite a bit since you’ve joined the profession. What are the biggest changes?

Tracie Juncaj: Back then, 18 years ago, you would wear beautiful outfits. You’d be there to be pretty, and helpful, and polite—talk about the car through the script that they gave you, memorize it verbatim, and know the trim levels. Now, you need to be much more knowledgeable on the product and know how the mechanics of the vehicle actually work—the suspension, the engine, how we’re different from the competition—because now you have a very educated buyer. What’s the worst thing about being a spokesperson?

Being on the stand talking about a vehicle and having some guy yelling out, “Hey, do you come with the car?” That was common, maybe 10 or more years ago. That was standard. You just had to smile—I mean, what can you say? “Oh, you’re original? You’re so funny.” You just handle it gracefully and politely, and just bite your tongue. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you as a spokesperson?

My first year, I had two cars on turntables, next to each other. And I opened the door as I was speaking about one vehicle, and the other car came swinging around and they crashed into each other. It’s lovely when you have an audience in front of you watching this all go down. I thought, “I’m so fired.” But the agency was great. They were like, “This is what insurance is for.”

Also, I met my husband working the auto shows. I was at Honda at the time and he was with Isuzu. We met in Atlanta, though we’re both from Michigan. Every now and again, we’d have a show together somewhere around the country. He was my big crush, but it took four or five years until we started dating.