A man in dark sunglasses handed out thousands of dollars to anyone asking for it inside Union Station Wednesday to promote a new advertising Web site, BailoutBooth.com. The publicity campaign, which earlier this month handed out $100,000 over two days in New York, is inspired by the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
"I keep hearing bailout, bailout, bailout, but nobody I see ever gets the money," said Bailout Bill, as the man calls himself, in an interview with the Huffington Post. In coming up with this promotional strategy, his thinking was, "We could do a Super Bowl ad, or we could take $3 million and go across the country handing it out."
The dreary daily headlines about big-time government aid to the financial industry led Bill to the handout path. A press release says Bailout Bill will give money "to anyone and everyone who walks up and explains why they need a bailout."
It's an effective publicity stunt. Media swarmed as hundreds of people waited hours in line for a chance to stand in front of a video camera and tell Bill their stories. A company spokesman said the interviews would be edited together and featured on the Web site. Each person received at least $50, sometimes more if deemed deserving by the mysterious entrepreneur. Many of the people in line said they were out of work. Several said they lived in homeless shelters.
"I'm gonna get some shoes and underwear and decent food," said Ruth Nash, clutching a crisp fifty. She said she lived in a homeless shelter on the campus of the defunct D.C. General Hospital in Southeast Washington. "I thank God," she said.
"I'm on disability and I don't have anything left," said Retha Eliat, who'd been given $100. She felt the same way about Bailout Bill's campaign as everybody else: "I think it's wonderful."
"I didn't even tell him my whole story," said Mike Jackson, who walked to Union Station from a nearby shelter and waited two hours for $50. "I'm gonna go to the Web site," Jackson said.
He won't be the only one. Drew Tybus, a spokesman for BailoutBooth.com, said that the day after the handouts in New York, more than 60,000 people registered on the site. Tybus described the site as a "craigslist meets YouTube" enterprise.
Bailout Bill refuses to reveal his identity for security reasons, Tybus said. The company hired six off-duty police officers to stand guard near the booth. But Tybus said there had not been any kind of bad incident at the previous events. Nobody broke the only rule: no cutting in line.
The Huffington Post asked Bailout Bill to share the saddest story he's heard. "There's too many," he said. "They're all sad."