Virtual Panhandling in London

Published on December 29th, 2009

Posted by Uncle Dave in Business, Technology, media

Is this the start of Minority Report-style, interactive advertising? Imagine this one going further: when you walk past without giving, the girl puts out her hand, her pleading eyes following you as she mouths the word “please.” In 3D.

The poster site features a film, shot by Frank Budgen, of a distressed-looking girl sitting alone in the corner of a room. At the bottom of the image is a traditional-looking collection tin that passers-by can place money into. When a coin is placed in the tin, the girl looks directly out of the frame at the person contributing and gives them a half-smile.

16 users responded in " Virtual Panhandling in London "

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url

# 1 amodedoma said, on December 29th, 2009 at 8:05 am

Wow, cool at least you get something in return for your change.

# 2 B.Dog said, on December 29th, 2009 at 8:45 am

Maybe I can get a tragic avatar from the PETA site.

# 3 Dr Dodd said, on December 29th, 2009 at 9:05 am

How ever are you going to fleece the white guilt crowd with this? There’s not a little black baby with flies buzzing around its face in sight.

This is no way to effectively use guilt as a way to pry silver coins from tightfisted liberals.

# 4 Analyst said, on December 29th, 2009 at 9:10 am

that looks expensive

# 5 JimR said, on December 29th, 2009 at 9:37 am

#1, re: “Wow, cool at least you get something in return for your change.”

amodedoma, what is it that you are getting that you wouldn’t normally get?

# 6 Greg Allen said, on December 29th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Wow.

Helping the poor is now “pan handling.”

I suppose you’d deny health care to Tiny Tim Cratchit, as well, and call it “family values.”

# 7 Dale said, on December 29th, 2009 at 10:43 am

Unless you want more of these kiosks of guilt you should vote with your money, don’t give to them. I hope this bad idea doesn’t cause backlash to the organizations that get suckered into buying them. And I’d be willing to bet it was thought up by a big marketing company that can’t wait to show successful results to Coke, GM, Budweiser. Tie this in with what Google has on you and your geo-located phone and it is just like Minority Report.

# 8 sargasso said, on December 29th, 2009 at 11:26 am

A new, cynical low point for the charity industry. Holographic beggars. I hope they accept virtual money.

# 9 bill said, on December 29th, 2009 at 11:52 am

Eat the RICH!

# 10 Jägermeister said, on December 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

#6 – Greg Allen – Wow.

Helping the poor is now “pan handling.”

It’s sad when you’ve got a society where the people at the bottom aren’t taken care of by its government. Christian organized “helping” is the worst social welfare system there is. Here… have some soup… and we’ll cram Jesus down your throat as a bonus! Just give enough help to get them hooked on Jesus.

# 11 Faxon said, on December 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Here in the People’s State of Kalifornia, welfare and public housing come out of my tax dollars. So I never give money to charities

# 12 Greg Allen said, on December 29th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

Jägermeister,

I totally agree that private charities can never replace a government social safety net.

But, I don’t think Christian “welfare” (I call it compassionate aid) is the worst. Conservative Social Darwinism is far worse, IMHO.

My own church has a food pantry and we gave out something like 15,000 bags of groceries last year and are anticipating 20,000 this year. We’re not even that big of a church.

Because of the ruined economy Bush left us, our church faced the very hard decision this year to either cut pastor staff or cut the project. We cut the staff because we simply didn’t want to turn hungry people away.

We do absolutely no proselytizing with the pantry. None. If you are hungry, show up and we’ll give you food. That’s it. Nothing more. Seriously — we are devout Christians but we don’t do anything like you described.

I’m curious, do you belong to any group that helps people? (I’m not baiting you — I’m I’d really like to know about it.)

# 13 JimR said, on December 30th, 2009 at 6:59 am

Greg Allen, kudos. That part of organized religion I can support if preaching isn’t involved. I doubt many atheists show up for food though. There’s a certain feeling of obligation or indebtedness when begging for help that is unavoidable. We have secular “food banks” to feed the hungry here, so that someone in need doesn’t feel like a hypocrite when asking. There’s no need to “belong” to those groups. We just donate food or money.

# 14 KarmaBaby said, on December 30th, 2009 at 8:05 am

It should accept credit cards.

# 15 William said, on December 30th, 2009 at 8:42 am

On occasion I do stop and have a chat with people collecting money for charity or spreading the word of god. Only the other week I got talking to a Jehovah’s Witnesses and learnt a lot about the religion and way of life.

Also I make a point to buy a Big Issue, a magazine where some of the profit goes towards the homeless person who sells it, and have a chat with the person who’s selling it (you’d be surprised one guy who selling it was a Doctor out of work).

# 16 David said, on December 31st, 2009 at 1:52 am

15# I am a Jehovahs Witness and am glad that you were able to learn more about our religion and our way of life.. and by the way do you live in Australia?

Leave Your Reply Below...

Comment Moderation is Active, so if your comment doesn't
show up immediately, please don't submit it again.

Special Deals 4U

25% off eHarmony subscription with code EHTECH
12-percent discount forever with code TECH
10-percent discount and free month using TECH10
10-percent or 30 dollars off weekly car rental!
Get 10-percent discount on car rental!
Get 10% off rental cars!
Get 10% off Dollar rentals!
Discounts on domain names!