The End of the Beginning

Braniacs from Mars might just be the most predatory and outright shameful OOH advertising company I have ever come across. With hundreds of thousands of families facing dire straights and the imminent loss of their home and economic stability, Braniacs from Mars has come up with a solution. They will pay your mortgage as long as you allow them to paint your house and cover it with advertising. In the below video, they seem to suggest that their business is a solution to a larger economic problem and a tool in the fight against the predatory lending practices. 
There are so many things wrong with this model I dont know where to begin. First, funding for this "economic solution" is being crowd sourced on indiegogo so you can be a part of the solution. Wait…what? Braniacs from Mars is asking the general public to fund the mortgage of a family in need so that they can then go and paint the house like a giant billboard? If I was going to fund someone else's mortgage I wouldn't ask them to live in a giant billboard, calling attention to their economic plight and making their home the ire of the neighborhood. This is predatory in all aspects.
Second, lets be realistic about the problem here. 3000 mortgages paid for by crowd funding 925,000 Dollars from the general public does not address the much larger problem which is the housing crisis. To conflate this advertising and marketing stunt with a real solution to the problem trivializes the issue and undermines the need for real systemic change in how the middle class survives while building wealth and capital in the form of property. The fact that an advertising company is willing to promote itself as some sort of altruistic agency out for the greater good speaks to the industries ego and willingness to lie or stretch the truth to the point of breaking in the effort to promote aggressive outdoor advertising campaigns. This type of behavior is at the root of the OOH business and should be seen as an integral part of operating our cities with the pressures of the advertising industry weighing on our population.  VIA The Daily News

Brooklyn homeowners go for gimmick to turn houses into billboards and get mortgages paid.

The neighbors might get mad but the price is right. Brooklyn homeowners — 149 so far — are vying to get in on an advertising gimmick that will pay their mortgages in exchange for painting their houses bright orange and green and adorning them with company logos. Read more [HERE]