Sandwich Board

Once upon a time - let's say during the last depression - people, mostly men, who were down on their luck and badly in need of food money, could make a couple of bucks by parading up and down some populated street while wearing a sandwich board. This device generally consisted of two large pieces of cardboard, attached with rope or string, and worn on the shoulders, making a sandwich of the person carrying it.

In the 30's, sandwich boards usually advertised eating establishments ("Eat at Joe's") or services ("Get Your Pants Pressed at Izzy's"). Sometimes, but not often, they directed the viewer to some upper class establishment, but in the main, these boards were aimed at the lower-income consumer and were carried by the still lower-income consumer.

In other words, people were paid to advertise a product. Izzy or Joe thought it worth while to use people as billboards in order to attract customers - a clever idea. But this was strictly amateur thinking compared to what the corporate Izzys and Joes of the world came up with for today's Tom, Dick or Harry.
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Once upon a time - let's say during the last depression - people, mostly men, who were down on their luck and badly in need of food money, could make a couple of bucks by parading up and down some populated street while wearing a sandwich board. This device generally consisted of two large pieces of cardboard, attached with rope or string, and worn on the shoulders, making a sandwich of the person carrying it. In the 30's, sandwich boards usually advertised eating establishments ("Eat at Joe's") or services ("Get Your Pants Pressed at Izzy's"). Sometimes, but not often, they directed the viewer to some upper class establishment, but in the main, these boards were aimed at the lower-income consumer and were carried by the still lower-income consumer. In other words, people were paid to advertise a product. Izzy or Joe thought it worth while to use people as billboards in order to attract customers - a clever idea. But this was strictly amateur thinking compared to what the corporate Izzys and Joes of the world came up with for today's Tom, Dick or Harry.

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* boguseconomist's diary :: ::
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I use males as examples because, at first, it was mostly males who bought into the idea of using themselves as boosters for, say, baseball or football teams. "Go, Dodgers!" on a baseball cap signified support and helped the wearer identify with the team. As these became more popular, the corporate world sat up and took notice. "Why," the CEOs said in the boardroom, "can't we get people to lay out good money to advertise our product? Our shoes are certainly as important as some bunch of overpaid ball-bobblers." And it was done. Pretty soon, a nice sweatshirt with a swoosh logo could set you back twenty smackers and let hundreds of people see your preference in sneakers, whether you wore Nike or not.

It didn't take the ladies long to follow. Pretty soon, blouses, sweatshirts, caps, socks, belts and almost anything else you could think of carried some corporate logo. Otherwise dignified women could be seen wearing warm-up suits proclaiming loyalty to Bum. Their escort might be advertising Big Dogs. Millions of dollars, instead of going out to the needy in exchange for their advertising services, were coming in to the seedy in their quest for more profit opportunities.

Try to imagine the guy with the sandwich board in 1933 being told that one day, instead of being paid to carry advertising around town, he'd be lining up to pay a company for the privilege of doing the same thing. You might get hit with the sandwich board.

I suggest a revolutionary capitalist principle: pay people for doing a job. If I'm going to wear a shirt promoting a product, I should be able to charge the manufacturer. This is already done in the case of cars. If I plaster a real estate sign on my car, that's advertising and it's either a business expense if it's my company or a source of income if I just let the company use my side panel. If it's good enough for the VW, why not the guy who drives it?

Parenthetically, why are we such suckers to let companies get away with this kind of crap? Maybe because the guys who run them are a lot smarter than we are. Maybe we should adopt their kind of thinking. If they won't pay me to flog their stuff, then to hell with them. I'll buy a T-shirt and a magic marker and do my own.

I won't tell you what it will say.