Bumvertising?
You know that the advertising craze is getting out of hand when someone starts using the homeless as an advertising medium.
The sad thing is that if this mania continues, the category of “residentially challenged advertising media” might start to draw venture investments.
I think any way of hiring a homeless person should be a good thing. I am sure they do not get paid that well for having a sign at the bottom, it’s not like they get paid by the hour (they only get $1-$5 a day plus sandwich and bottle of water for advertising all day long in extreme weather conditions, making a lousy 5 cents an hour to 25 cents per hour, wow, BIG MONEY)…
Now the panhandler is less likely to get spare change from passer-bys as it looks as though they have a “job” advertising (they may actually make less money than before), this was the case with “panners” that sold the “Spare Changes” or “Street News” type newspapers (they could get much more money begging without selling papers).
What I think bumvertisments should do is make it so that if the agency used all 4 sides of a panhandlers sign (maybe even the backside), they panhandler should have an oppritunity to least make close to minimum wage (aprox $6/hr), that’s about a $1.00 per ad per hour (monitor their progress by having them panhandle near live webcam in city). This would be enuough income generated so that the homeless person could actually get a cheap hotel for the night so they can sleep well and clean up for the next day of work. Giving a panhandler $1-5 dollars for a long days work is not helping, that will not even cover breakfast the following morning! Maybe give/rent these homeless people warm jackets (or t-shirts for hot climate) to wear that will allow more advertising on the back and front too (will help homeless stay warm). This advertising agency should be trying to make the homeless people NON-HOMLESS, by offering an actual wage for the “full package ad pack”, these homeless people could get off the streets and become employees (on contract) rather than helpless & homeless…
http://www.SpareSomeChange.com is the homeless search engine (poverty link portal) I made.