This morning, ABC News, with help from KOMO-TV, reports on Ben Rogovy, the 22-year-old UW graduate making waves with his “inexpensive and highly visible tool to publicize his Web site.” Rogovy’s patented name for this promotional tool: bum-vertising, wherein panhandlers are given food, water, and an undisclosed amount of cash to supplement their signs for spare change and mercy with signs advertising Rogovy’s web site.

According to ABC, Rogovy’s “bum-vertised” signs have been on U-District and Wallingford street corners for a month, and of course there’s been controversy.

On one side is Rogovy, who says he’s making use of an untapped labor force, giving panhandlers a job while getting thrifty advertising for business. On the other side are homeless advocates, who denounce Rogovy’s practices as exploitation of a most vulnerable class of citizen. On still another side (it’s a triangle) are the semanticists, who just really hate the name “bum-vertising.”

Full story here.

A most tasteful and cannily punitive omission: The name and address of Rogovy’s bum-vertised website, which ABC News says “purports to be an online directory that connects poker players from around the globe.”

The homeless helping entrepreneurs help gamblers.
And so it goes.