Alex Bogusky's Unlikely Journey From Ad Man to Social Entrepreneurship Booster

Once called the creative director of the decade, Bogusky is now helping shape the message of everyone from Al Gore to budding worldchangers.

Homelessness presented Alex Bogusky, the Crispin Porter + Bogusky co-founder, with an unexpected challenge. The question was not whether or not he would help someone less fortunate but how he could play a more intentional role in the conversation going on in our streets and in society.

The answer was to purchase signs from the homeless in his community, spurred on by his appreciation of such a pure form of advertising. Prepared with cash, extra cardboard and markers, Bogusky hit the streets to begin buying signs and breaking down the barriers of communication between the homeless and himself. The more signs he accumulated, the more addictive the gesture became.

As the initiative gained momentum, Bogusky began working with the production company Kids at Play on this award-winning short, explaining that simply giving a dollar to someone and sharing this experience can further the notion of generosity. "Even if the person is going to use the money to do something that you don't approve of, you still have put generosity into the world when you give them something," Bogusky says. "It seems to me that is a much more important thing than what happens with that money. Culturally we need that more. We need to think of generosity as a two-way street, as a connection, as a realization of our shared humanity."

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