You've paid off their credit card debt, bought them boob jobs, and now you can pay for anything they want. No, these aren't your kids you're taking care of; these are complete strangers.
Donating to complete strangers via official charities, Amazon donation boxes and PayPal donations has been around, but Justin Gignac and his wife Christine have raised begging on the web to a new level. They are the street performers of Internet panhandling.
These clever 20-somethings want things -- very specific things -- which they have painted. They upload images of their works and offer them for sale, with each painting listed at the exact same price of the item it represents.
They want buffalo wings, they paint them on a 12" X 12" canvas and offer it for sale on their website for $12.70. They want their rent paid, they paint a check made out to "landlord" on 20" X 16" and offer it for sale on their website for $1056.07.
Beer: $7
Abs (via gym membership): $84.95
Sleep: Free
Cost of getting what you want from strangers? Priceless.
Internet Panhandeling
Ask And It Will Be Given
Trend Themes
1. Internet-panhandling-as-social-experiment - Businesses can explore how customers will respond when buying from panhandlers online.
2. Niche-crowdfunding - Innovators can create niche crowdfunding platforms for specific products or services.
3. Gifting-economy - Businesses can explore the potential for a new economy - a gifting economy - where people receive instead of buy.
Industry Implications
1. Art - Artists can merge consumerism and art for their artwork by following this new art sales model.
2. Crowdfunding - Crowdfunding platforms can take cues from this new form of panhandling to establish themselves as more focused and innovative.
3. Charity - Charities can leverage new ways of giving by incorporating similar models or themes into their fundraising efforts.