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Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:16:57 PM

Vendaval

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I am not sure what to think of this tactic. A father and son set up a Website to collect donations for a homeless man and had him hold up signs advertising the site. They collected about $50,000. But is this going to help him long term?
Is it exploitation?

"PimpThisBum.com employs irony on homeless man's behalf"

March 26, 2009

By Tracy SaboCNN Senior Producer

"HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- When Sean Dolan saw signs being carried by homeless people, he saw an opportunity.

He and his father wanted to drive people to a Web site, so they created PimpThisBum.com as a marketing tool and gave a homeless man a sign with the Web site's address to hold while panhandling in Houston.

Their idea worked.

Visitors seeing the sign flocked to the site and in less than two months Dolan received $50,000 in donations and pledges through the site for the man, including a five-week alcohol treatment program donated by Sunray Treatment and Recovery based near Seattle, Washington.

We knew that the same campaign with a sincere appeal and a Web site like helpthehomeless.com would be ignored," he said. "We knew that if we insulted people's sensitivity or appealed to their humor on a subject as sensitive as this we would get their attention."

Kevin Dolan, with more than two decades of marketing and sales experience and his son, Sean, a Web-savvy college student with a small video camera and a passion for volunteer work, got the site off the ground with the help of Timothy Dale Edwards. He has been homeless and living under a busy Houston overpass for more than four years.

The Dolans' offer to Timothy Edwards would be a hard one for any homeless person to refuse: $100 cash per day guaranteed, perhaps even more if the campaign was successful. All Edwards had to do was carry a homemade sign advertising "www.PimpThisBum.com" while he panhandled each day.

For Edwards and his friends it was effortless -- they already carried signs reading,

"Homeless, Please help" or "Hungry, Need a days work."

And the Dolans promised monetary donations that came into the Web site would go straight to Edwards."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/26/pimp.this.bum/index.html?iref=werecommend

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So in this gray haze we'll be meating again, and on that
great day, I will tease you all the same."
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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:19:26 PM

kittinSol

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Like you, I'm not sure, but one thing's for sure, in my book: their domain name absolutely fucking sucks

.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:24:20 PM

slaveboyforyou

Posts: 3607
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From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
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$100 a day? Hell, that's $700 a week, and I imagine the bum isn't getting taxes taken out. I don't see it as any more humiliating than what he's already doing. If it helps him, I say good idea. Honestly, how often do you pay attention to a bum holding a "Will work for food" sign? It's as clever as the bums I see with dogs. People don't feel sorry for the bum, but they sure as hell feel sorry for the damn dog. It's a mad world we live in.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:31:08 PM

rulemylife

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I don't see it as exploitation.

Just an opportunity that seems to benefit both parties.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:34:37 PM

domiguy

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With the downturn in the economy I now stand right off of the highway on the Irving Park Rd exit....My sign reads, "Will Dom for food."

HoboDom.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:35:37 PM

vincent63

Posts: 439
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From: jersey,then texas,now florida
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having just moved from Houston a week before Christmas, and knowing the amount of homeless and the lack of city services for them, I wouldnt be a bit surprised to see this become a new fad

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:36:30 PM

Vendaval

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Joined: 1/15/2005
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Fast Reply -

I rarely give cash to homeless panhandlers because of the high rate of alcoholism and drug addiction. However I will give them and their dogs food and drinks.

_____________________________

"Beware, the woods at night, beware the lunar light.
So in this gray haze we'll be meating again, and on that
great day, I will tease you all the same."
"WOLF MOON", OCTOBER RUST, TYPE O NEGATIVE

http://KinkMeet.co.uk

(in reply to domiguy)

Post #: 7

RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:41:41 PM

domiguy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Vendaval

Fast Reply -

I rarely give cash to homeless panhandlers because of the high rate of alcoholism and drug addiction. However I will give them and their dogs food and drinks.

I give money because they are alcoholics and drug addicts. I buy people I have never met a bar a drink why not some smelly dude? Anyways the chance that he is going to clean up his act in the absence of my dollars is rather absurd....More likely he might have a night of the DT's. Which I understand can be fatal.

I like the idea that he would spend every penny I gave him on booze...I know there have been times in my past where that is exactly what I did with my last dollar.

Boozehounds unite!...lol.

< Message edited by domiguy -- 3/26/2009 1:42:18 PM >

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 1:42:19 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
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When I lived in large cities, I gave cash to homeless people regardless... if they want to get drunk on it, I figured it was their business. I'd need to be high and/or drunk too, to live that kind of life... In fact, I've heard it was the only way to make it through.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:13:59 PM

aravain

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Likewise, Vendaval.

I once actually asked a guy with a 'please help for food' sign what type of sandwich he'd like from the place he was standing outside of... he said "Don't give me no fuckin' food, give me cash."

I didn't give him a fucking cent.

It's false advertising :\.

One homeless man I saw had a sign that said "Why lie, I want a beer. Please help." and I actually gave him a quarter, purely for the sign.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:15:36 PM

rulemylife

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quote:

ORIGINAL: domiguy

I like the idea that he would spend every penny I gave him on booze...I know there have been times in my past where that is exactly what I did with my last dollar.

Boozehounds unite!...lol.

Absolutely wrong!!!!

If you spend the last dollar you have there is nothing left for the 3 a.m. Chalupa Supreme at TacoBell.

< Message edited by rulemylife -- 3/26/2009 2:17:45 PM >

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:17:19 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
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I disagree with your approach: who am I to judge how someone will spend the money? It's only 'surplus' money to me, that I'm willing to give away. These people are adults. Their desperate circumstances don't make them into the wards of my goodwill; if I agree to give them a miserly financial contribution, it doesn't come at the cost of their personal freedom, as far as I'm concerned...

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:17:49 PM

Kirata

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Joined: 2/11/2006
From: USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

In fact, I've heard it was the only way to make it through.

I'm not a drinker, but I could take a stroll through Hell and tip my hat to the Devil with good enough weed. Or forget hell, think of something worse, like graduate school, or war.

K.

< Message edited by Kirata -- 3/26/2009 2:20:56 PM >

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:20:47 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
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You got my meaning. Booze, weed, anything that's psychoactive. Fuck... imagine being homeless and desperate, and stuck there with all of your mind intact, unable to have a drink or a smoke, or whatever, because all that people were willing to do for you is to give you a sandwich. I mean, what's the message there? "Get fat, don't get happy"?

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:25:51 PM

Kirata

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From: USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

Fuck... imagine being homeless and desperate, and stuck there with all of your mind intact, unable to have a drink or a smoke, or whatever, because all that people were willing to do for you is to give you a sandwich. I mean, what's the message there? "Get fat, don't get happy"?

Please don't say "fuck" around me unless you mean it.

Funny, though, I've found that you can sometimes tell the difference, in Manhattan at least, between panhandlers who are really homeless, and the ones making more money than half the people giving them change, by their reaction if you flip'em a joint.

K.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:28:11 PM

domiguy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: rulemylife

quote:

ORIGINAL: domiguy

I like the idea that he would spend every penny I gave him on booze...I know there have been times in my past where that is exactly what I did with my last dollar.

Boozehounds unite!...lol.

Absolutely wrong!!!!

If you spend the last dollar you have there is nothing left for the 3 a.m. Chalupa Supreme at TacoBell.

It is a wise man, when tapped, that surrounds himself with drunken hombres that are sporting 3 am burrito funds.

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:31:37 PM

aravain

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I'm usually *not* willing to part with my money. I don't have "surplus money" to just give!

That said, if I come across someone who looks like he hasn't eaten in a week as I'm about to go buy an over-priced sandwich, I'm liable to just buy them one instead.

The quarter I gave the other guy was just out of amusement (and it was my last bit of physical money), and I told him it was all I had. Sometimes the entertainment's worth more than the price of a movie.

But when they have a sign that says that they want food, when they really want cash... that pisses me off. Ask for what you want! That doesn't necessarily mean I will then give you money because you're being honest, but it certainly makes it more likely. If you ask for food, I will *only* try to give you food.

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Post #: 17

RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:35:39 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
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I hear what you're saying but still, I put myself in a homeless person's shoes, and I know that I'd feel more dignified accepting cash than having to take food from strangers. It's weird, but money is more empowering, really.

It's very personal: since none of us are obligated to give money to people on the streets, we all have our quirks in how we deal with it...

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:37:12 PM

aravain

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But here's the crux of the issue for me...

if you made a sign... would it ask for food, or money?

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RE: Pimp this Bum, helpful or harmful? - 3/26/2009 2:41:58 PM

domiguy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

I hear what you're saying but still, I put myself in a homeless person's shoes, and I know that I'd feel more dignified accepting cash than having to take food from strangers. It's weird, but money is more empowering, really.

It's very personal: since none of us are obligated to give money to people on the streets, we all have our quirks in how we deal with it...

Have you ever considered giving a fella down on his luck some of that primo pusswa? I can just imagine how the homeless might develop a certain swagger after tappin' yo shit. Might cause a guy to do a complete one eighty...Clean himself up and look for a better way of life. At the least, it might provide him with a couple of nights of some solid wacking material.

Don't be selfish with the go-go hole.

< Message edited by domiguy -- 3/26/2009 2:42:22 PM >

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