Bumvertising

Marketing Alternatif alerts us to yet another version of street people carrying ads in exchange for food, adgrunts will recall that pizza schmizza did this in San Francisco back in 2003, and the Sisterhood Augustinessen in Amsterdam offered 'advertising coats' to homeless people last winter, and most recently GoGorilla used a "bum" to advertise their media buying tactics. No, really, though some people thought the bum looked more like an intern with a bad shirt.

Well, now there's even a dedicated media company with a small stable of homeless people on offer in Seattle - it's Bumvertising™ by Front Door Enterprises. Yes, they even planted a ™ on that word. In the Bumvertising™ gallery you'll find images of the homeless people who agreed to carry signs in exchange for a couple of sandwiches and apples. There's even listings of the bums that didn't make the cut as they weren't 'enthusiastic, willing, and appreciative enough for the gig of being a Bumvertising™ representative'. It's a tough career.

If all of this is making you bummed out, please visit the polar opposite end of our mad advertising world and check out Project Hello created by the creatives from 86 the onions as a way to give homeless individuals a name, and in the process, encourage others to treat them with dignity, respect, and compassion.