Pizza Schmizza paid me to put this link on Metafilter

June 19, 2003 5:05 PM

Odd Advertising...Pizza Schmizza paid me to put this link on Metafilter.
posted by angry modem (14 comments total)

The Church of Scientology has been doing this in Toronto for years.
posted by dobbs at 5:14 PM on June 19, 2003

Not nearly as effective an advertising vehicle aswriting your domain name on the breasts of a beautiful model you hired to streak the U.S. Open, i'd imagine. Oh yeah, those links may not be safe for work.
posted by jonson at 5:25 PM on June 19, 2003

read my boobs.
posted by quonsar at 6:39 PM on June 19, 2003

Aw, jeez, quonsar, do I hafta?

Oh, it's a link to some lady's boobs. Whew!
posted by soyjoy at 7:36 PM on June 19, 2003

Sheesh...I always felt bad for the minimum-wage guys who had this job...getting homeless people to do it is just plain wrong. I wonder how many slices he gives to the prostitutes for 40 minutes worth of work?

And jonson, I can't believe that you expect that anyone is not going to click a link marked "breasts" before reading the NSFW disclaimer? I mean, how was I to know it might not be appropriate! ;)
posted by filmgoerjuan at 7:40 PM on June 19, 2003

Her (quonsar's link, that is) boobs actually read a little silicon-y, but that's just my read on them.
posted by yhbc at 7:42 PM on June 19, 2003

Actually, and I can't believe I would spend any time analyzing this, but the writing on quonsar's breast link doesn't look real, it looks photoshopped on. I imagine it isn't, I mean, it's not that hard to find someone who will let you write on their breasts (at least, it hasn't been in my experience), why go to the trouble of photoshopping it?
posted by jonson at 8:32 PM on June 19, 2003

getting homeless people to do it is just plain wrong

Why? I think this is a great idea. No one is getting exploited, the pizza place gets more attention that it could've expected, the person holding the sign gets some money and some food. It's not like the pizza place forced the guy at gunpoint to do this.
posted by gyc at 8:50 PM on June 19, 2003

It's labor, right? And it's probably at far less than the minimum wage, right? This isn't exploitation?

Also, I'm pretty sure these wages aren't being reported to Uncle Sam and won't show up on any W-2s. I wonder if this article won't provide some publicity of an unwanted sort for Pizza Schmizza.
posted by UKnowForKids at 9:08 PM on June 19, 2003

It's labor, right? And it's probably at far less than the minimum wage, right? This isn't exploitation?

Bah. The guy would be holding up a sign begging for money anyway, why not pay him a couple of bucks and give him some food for something he'd do anyway? It's charity. I really don't get how someone can say this is exploitation. It sounds like a sweet deal. I wish someone would pay me to do something I'd already be doing.
posted by gyc at 11:04 PM on June 19, 2003

Minimum wage in Oregon is, IIRC, $6.90. So for 40 minutes (2/3 of an hour) that'd be $4.60. A slice, a Coke, and "a few dollars" would easily cover that.

But as I said over at RandomWalks: I have a hard time considering something a stick could do just as well as a human being "work." It's charity with a dose of marketing. Companies often engage in charity in their communities. And one of the reasons they do so is for the publicity it will give them. The owner of Pizza Schmizza has figured out a way to get publicity from his charity instantly and continuously, rather than waiting for people to read about it in the newspaper once a year. Very clever.
posted by kindall at 12:12 AM on June 20, 2003

I agree with jonson, the writing on the lady's breasts just looks like it's photoshopped on to the image.
Nice little earner, get a few pictures of girlfriend or model....oh, it's free, gotta give it a go.
posted by Joeforking at 3:36 AM on June 20, 2003

kindall: yep, exactly. the newly-opened pizza schmizza they were doing this for is a couple blocks from my work.

if i want to buy a slice of pizza and a soda, it's $3.99.

a slice of pizza, a soda, and a few bucks for 40 minutes of work is more than the equivalent of minimum wage in oregon.
posted by wrffr at 2:58 PM on June 20, 2003

I rather liked the Pizza Schmizza idea -- down here in NorCal the panhandling issue has gotten rather heated. In San Francisco, business groups are targeting panhandling contributors with agression and near hostility, posting large ads linking giving to any/all social ills that take root in the street community.

This seems like a reasonable alternative.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:24 PM on June 23, 2003