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Where is Bumvertising Today?
Posted by Scott on 15th November, 2007 | 18 commentsI first heard about Bumvertising a couple years ago but now I’m wondering, where is Bumvertising today? I’d like to know: are any of you doing this - if so, is it successful and if not, why not?
Photo: Could it work?
Before the hate mail starts 
(and FYI to Googlers, that photo is a parody), allow me to make my case for why I think Bumvertising is a good idea.
First of all, everyone knows that the homeless problem in this country is huge. Estimates are that there are about 3.5 Million homeless people in any given year and we recently learned that 1 in 4 are veterans. Sorry, but I think our government owes it to our veterans to provide food, water, and shelter, for life - if they put their lives on the line to defend our country, don’t they deserve at least this much? Anything less than lifelong support of our veterans is an outright disgrace to their service. Frankly, I think we’re a wealthy enough country that these basic human needs should one day be met for all people by our government.
In the meantime, we have a nation full of people walking around on the streets all day and night who need food, water, shelter. Many of them, as you have probably seen, stand at street corners holding signs saying “will work for food”, or some other request for food or assistance. These people are willing to work if they can. Instead of holding a meaningless sign, why not hold up an advertisement, much like a billboard or the “sign wigglers” that we see advertising new housing developments, get paid, and be able to eat or maybe eventually get off the street entirely and into a home?
I actually hate the term Bumvertising as I think it’s derogatory. I only use it here because it was coined and popularly describes this activity. I don’t think the homeless are bums at all and I do have compassion for every last person who endures such a hardship. But the action of paying a homeless person to hold an ad banner is, in my opinion, a win-win for both advertiser and the homeless participant. The advertiser SHOULD be viewed as a company that’s willingly helping a person to feed themselves, and they should be viewed in a positive light. The advertiser gets cheap exposure in high traffic areas and the homeless participant earns money legitimately. Companies might even be able to write off all or part of the expense as a charitable contribution.
Photo: It’s already being done with paid sign wavers, walking billboards etc, just not with the homeless who need the money much more than this guy.
So, could the advertising dollars that let you and I sit in our homes and write content and manage websites all day be the answer to the nation’s homeless problem? Could the advertiser pay a flat monthly fee rather than an expensive hourly minimum wage rate (and the participant could then display more than one sign, a hat, a t-shirt, etc)? Is it ethical to pay a person to stand at the busiest intersection in San Francisco holding a sign for Google, when they’d be there holding a “Will work for food” sign anyway, and would the city govt erect ordinances against this, further ensuring that the homeless problem never goes away?
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Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 6:02 am and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Bumvertising sounds great. What I’m wondering is about minimum wage laws etc, do they apply?
Minimum wage laws apply to employees, not independent contractors. So, you could in theory pay the participant a monthly fee (or even a projected per banner impression fee) in exchange for the service they’re providing. The point, though, isn’t to take advantage of a person who is already down on their luck. The point is to get something for your business while simultaneously solving one of society’s biggest problems, if enough companies participated and if it was accepted as a “good” thing by society.
This was an awesome post. I think bumvertising is a way for the big guys to help out the bums with all their basic monetary woes, whatever they might choose to spend that money on.
Btw, Scott, you should get an Entrecard! I’d love to swap cards with you
“Frankly, I think we’re a wealthy enough country that these basic human needs should one day be met for all people by our government.”
Oh, man I hope so! That way, we can all stop working!!
Wow, I never even thought about that. Like you said there are companies that are already paying people to be walking banner, why not give that support to the homeless.
Its a win win situation. This was a very good info. Also it helps the homeless people.
It would be great if the companies could call out for say like 20 homeless people as a group and tell them they are going to pay so much if they hold their banners for so long. And if companies did that imagine how many people would probably have a job they wouldnt mind doing and cut down on homeless people and giving them a chance to live a better life.
Once again, this was a great post. thanx Scott
My views on homeless people are mixed. Some really are homeless and on hard times, others are just lazy and pretend so they can get some easy money. I have read some articles that show what some of these “bums” make a year, and it was hardly of little value. Some of these guys could easily start a living by the money they make on the streets.
As a result, I don’t give money to homeless people because a lot of them use it for drugs, liquor, cigarettes, etc… Instead, I give them job applications.
Not to turn this into a debate about homelessness itself, but I don’t think anyone views life on the street as favorable or a great way to make some “easy money” as you claim. If someone’s homeless it’s because they either can’t find work (lack of skills), are incapable of working due to mental illness, or are trying to take care of a family as a single parent for instance and can’t care for their kids and work at the same time.
I don’t buy the “if you give money to homeless people you encourage them” argument. That’s hooey. If you give them money then maybe they can eat today. Their lives suck compared to yours. Giving them $2 might make their life a tiny bit easier no matter what they spend it on.
I never said life on the street was favorable, and I am sure it is hard for the truly homeless people. But not all these people on the streets are genuinely homeless like you claim.
If they ask me for food then I will give them some leftover food I might have on me.
But not if they ask me for money. I have watched them come back out of a store with a 40oz beer in their hand bought with my money. Or sitting on the sidewalk strung out on heroin after I gave them money the day before.
I have seen one guy on the sidewalk begging for change, and then the next morning I see him working out in my gym. Don’t you think if you were pressed for cash you wouldn’t have a gym membership?
Or how about the guy that was asking me for a quarter and then later in the day he is in line at Walgreen’s in front of me buying a 2 cartons of cigarettes.
I guess that makes me a bad person for not wanting to give those people my “$2″ to “make their life a tiny bit easier”.
“If they ask me for food then I will give them some leftover food I might have on me. But not if they ask me for money. I have watched them come back out of a store with a 40oz beer in their hand bought with my money. ”
I don’t disagree with that. I’ve heard stories of people offering food but being declined, then when they give money the guy goes across the street into the liquor store. But lets face it, I probably would too if I had their life - they’re just trying to cope and get by day to day.
And yeah, I have given food before and prefer that over money. But the idea of paying the homeless to advertise could a) fund their eating and b) possibly give them enough to get off the street, though there will be some % that will never function again with any amount of money because they have issues that need to be solved by other means.
If they make money by living on the street, then how are they going to get off the street??
If being homeless is not a requirement for this job’s application then you’ll see the sign holding guy on the photo applying for the job, and many more jobless people, as it is exactly the same kind of job.
It’s an idea though, and someone should start it and try to change the view most people will have of it (companies abusing people bad luck, encouraging street living and lazy jobs, etc.)
“If they make money by living on the street, then how are they going to get off the street??”
Maybe they’ll use their ad dollars to rent an apt, eat 3 meals a day, and continue holding signs 9-5.
Then they won’t be homeless anymore, so if the jobs aren’t exclusively reserved to homeless people, many jobless people will take this job.
But as I said, anyone willing to try really should and it would be interesting to see the public and government reaction.
Hi Scott,
It’s certainly an interesting idea. But I suspect that it would probably tend to serve much better as an altruistic endeavor … as opposed to a truly effective form of advertising. I think a lot would depend on the type of product or service being promoted.
This is similar to the case few years ago when an entrepreneur went on eBay selling his clothes as advertising spaces for companies. The venture got some attention due to its originality. But it didn’t really take off.
How about paying a homeless person to pose for some stock photography shots so they are not being humiliated walking the street with some banner?
Why is it humiliating to walk down a street with a banner when people are paid to do this all the time?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_directional
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/HumanDirectional.jpg/180px-HumanDirectional.jpg
Brilliant idea. Bravo.
I think it would be a good idea but i think alot of people would get turned off and they look like that. so places would have to pay them to look good too so it wouldnt be cheap but i love to see a company try i would give a good pr to any company even the worst ones.