Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) gave 13 homeless people living on the streets of Austin, Texas mobile mi fi devices.
Atendees of the annual SXSW (South by South West) tech festival were able to purchase 15 minutes of wi-fi internet access from the people carrying the devices. They were then requested to pay the person carrying the wi-fi hotspot a fee of $2 for 15 minutes access.
Some critics have said that the scheme was in poor taste and that the explotation of homeless people – although the ad agency said that the original intention of the scheme was to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness in the city. New York Times called it “a little dystopian”.
“Just because it’s well-intentioned doesn’t mean it should be shielded from widespread critique and remain unexamined for where it falls short” said a user called John on the bbh-labs website.
Saneel Radia of BBH said that as a result of the controversy “…homelessness is actually a subject being discussed at SXSW and these people are no longer invisible.”
In the wake of the response to this seemingly gimmicky headline grabbing stunt, Buzzfeed interviewed a homeless man called Melvin
“I would say that these people are trying to help the homeless, and increase awareness. They’re trying not to put us in a situation where we’re stereotyped. That’s a good side of it, too — we get to talk to people. Maybe give them a different perception of what homeless is like. It’s all good.”
