Advertising, how low will they go?

Remember Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report"? He walks through a shopping mall and companies have lasers that scan your eye's retina and start calling you by name and personalising their adds? Well, this week I saw evidence that that terrifying thought is drawing closer to reality, when in Pinheiros Metro station an advertiser had set up a light & dry ice rig that projected the company logo, with commuters having to walk through it! Pretty hard to ignore. If that wasn't bad enough, last night my sleep was twice disturbed by computerized tele-marking calls on my mobile at 1.30am & 3am!! As I say, advertising, how low will they go?

The Flame Thrower of Poá

I often like to look up the variety of definitions that exist for a word, in order to get a greater feeling for it. This weekend the term was "Hustler", to which one definition read: "a shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties". São Paulo has the highest number "hustlers" I've ever seen in a city, and you come across them everywhere, from trains to zebra crossings. I met this particular hustler in my home town and he fell on the better side of the definition, simply offering talent for a willing donation. He also offered me a great São Paulo second to capture.