

Southern hotspot-ality?


Hi, are you a 4G hotspot? getty image

Recently, a NY-based advertising agency, BBH Labs, hired local homeless people to become walking 4G hotspots in Austin, Texas.

This is not a joke, as ridiculous as it sounds. Participants receive 20 dollars a day plus any donations given to them to wear a t-shirt that says “I’m [First Name]. A 4G hotspot,” and carry around a mobile Internet device. Cute, they’re not people or anything… just walking Internet providers.

I’m all for charity, but to me and most who have heard about this “charitable experiment” it’s so morally screwed up it does not even qualify as charity.

The company is objectifying the homeless. Why not install these Wi-Fi devices into street signs or kiosks and donate the profits to local homeless shelters?

These people probably do not have food or a place to sleep at night, let alone a mobile device with Internet access, yet that is what they’re supplying? Anyone who would even consider accessing their Wi-Fi is insensitive; it’s like rubbing your success and wealth in the faces of the less fortunate.

I do support helping homeless people find jobs, but this practice just doesn’t seem ethical to me. There are definitely better ways to help those in need.

Jennifer O'Connor, The College of Saint Rose

3 Responses

  1. Zack Kilmer says:

    I really don’t think the people getting the money care about the ethics or the morals. What they probably do care about it how that money will let them eat that night.

  2. Jennifer O'Connor says:

    I know, it’s just sad that they are being exploited like that.

  3. etc says:

    “Southern Hotspot-ality”

    That’s very clever, Jennifer!