About 8 9 10 years ago Labatt Blue did print/outdoor in Canada showing interesting character A walking down one street toward a corner about to run into interesting character B coming down the other. No I can't remember any of 'em.

Exactly. It's been done before because this is just a simple media solution. The creativity is in how it's used. So I don’t feel necessarily inclined to call it a badlander...

Same media idea, but different executions. As long as the reasons for using both sides are distinct, I wouldn't condemn. But the campaign about two unlikely people walking toward each other sounds awfully close to this Ariel idea.