On behalf of Vitamin Water, CollegeHumor orchestrated a prank in which a panhandler enters a subway car and begins do quite the opposite of begging for money. He regales subway passengers with stories of his increasing success and the fact that he’s not holding an empty latte cup to fill with money, he just refuses to litter. The humor escalates to the point the entire subway car is giving the man high fives.
The stunt is part of the brand’s Make Boring Brilliant campaign. The boring, in this case, is, of course, the lowly panhandler seen all day every day as one makes one’s way through the city. What’s not boring, of course, is that fact that some of these panhandlers are good folks who have simply fallen on bad fortune and are desperately doing whatever they can to survive. We’re not sure poking fun at that situation is the best marketing move a brand could make.
