It's something about somebody exhibiting at a CES press event, I think.
I know, you think your email pitches look better if you put big, fancy graphics in them. But they don’t look so hot if your recipient has images blocked by default, or worse, is reading their messages on a smartphone with a slow data link. Or even worse, on an airplane with no connectivity.
Do you want your message to be pretty, or do want it to be read?
At the very least, put the actual content of the message in text up at the top of the message. That way, your recipient can read it regardless. Also, it’s much easier to copy and paste information from an email into a calendar or to-do list if there’s actual text to select.
Rafe
Pro PR Tips 
Word up, Rafe. Especially about copying and pasting into a calendar. Don’t make my life hard before I even decide whether to attend your event!
If I can’t read an email without turning on images, it goes in the bin (or Gmail archive, more accurately). If you can’t write a sensible email, I won’t read a ridiculous one. When I send email (and I’m talking mailing-list type big flashy marketing email for a band I do the website for), I *rarely* use images except for the header. And I only use one there because MailChimp made me.
It’s just a veiled attempt for a read receipt. They know who read it and when as soon as you load the images. Low class trick.
I agree with the above posters. If a message is all image with no text, it gets canned. Idea: Why not put the text content of you message in the “ALT” tag in the image URL? That’s exactly what it is made for. Learn basic HTML don’t cha know?