Photo from T3.
I’ve heard of effective billboard campaigns, even for nonprofit groups. But this Texas billboard crusade is bringing the marketing of social services to another level. Like 50-feet high.
A homeless man lived on the billboard for a couple of days. The sign says, “I am Danny. I am homeless. I AM HERE -‡”. Literally. With a plea to donate ten dollars via Twitter.
We always talk about how homelessness is hidden from our sight. We avert our eyes, ignore their pleas. We walk on the other side of the street. Roll our windows up. Anything to prevent the seeing, touching, or smelling of homelessness.
But it’s difficult to ignore a massive billboard, especially when you see a homeless man living up there on that dangerous ledge.
And the campaign worked for Danny and his wife. The organization that is promoting this “I am here” campaign raised enough ten dollar bills to house them.
Kudos for this agency to think outside of the marketing box. They’ve educated the community, let people see homelessness as a human issue, and housed a couple.
But really. Will our society only help hurting people when they see them perched on a ledge of a gigantic billboard? Is this what our compassion is coming to?
Forget the idea that we should respond to hurting people because it is just the right thing to do. Only respond when we see them dangling 50 feet in the air right before our eyes.
Of course, many communities are banning new billboards. That will certainly hinder this creative marketing campaign.
2 Comments
I'm not convinced that our society's compassion is draining. I think when many people become aware of a real need they are generally (not always though) inclined to help. Haiti for instance.
But the homelessness that the general public usually sees, at least where I live in Detroit, are usually the panhandlers asking for money day in and day out. It's a hussle that never seems to result in housing for the majority of them. And when you see signs of drug use on their bodies, it creates a stigma that is hard to get away from. I don't think that people are not compassionate. They just have a tainted view of the issue. In Detroit, you have to really dig to find the homeless people who actually want help and aren't just trying to live off the goodwill of others. When someone asks me for help, I'm immediately skeptical because I've been burned enough times to be careful about how I steward the resources I've been given.
I think we have to at some point get away from this idea that people don't care. People do care. They just don't all care about homelessness in the midst of child slavery, global starvation, AIDS, natural disaster relief… the list goes on. Sign onto Twitter and search "help" and try to make sense of all the charities and people trying to motivate people to care about THEIR cause. And those that want to care about the homeless have no idea how to help. More needs to be said about the roots of the issue, and people need to be taught what they can do to help and how they can do it beyond giving money. Guilt is never a good motivator, and money is rarely a good way to help someone experiencing homelessness… yet that's all most know to do when they get stopped for money day in and day out.
I agree that our society has not lost compassion. But it usually is expressed during a "crisis". People don't see homelessness as a "crisis", they see it as a problem.