Here’s a bothersome trend that seems quite fitting for the smoke and mirrors driven, celebrity obsessed, hologram society that America has become. A company known as Crowds on Demand is actually in the business of providing fake protesters for causes, fake entourages for wanna be celebrities and seemingly even fake supporters for unpopular corporate activities.
This just furthers my feeling that action is far more important than traditional protests in the 21st Century. They key to getting out of the mess we are in is to actively create a parallel economy and even monetary system adjacent to the current terminal one. That way, when this one blows up, we already have the infrastructure in place to move to another paradigm. One characterized by peaceful, voluntary human interaction and dominated by decentralization in virtually all aspects of human existence. From Vice:
Crowds on Demand, as the name suggests, is a company that will organize a crowd for you, on demand.
The two main scenarios that require this service are: 1) You’re an aspiring celebrity who wants to make it seem like people give a shit about you, so you hire some fake fans; or 2) you believe in a cause and want to make it seem like people give a shit about it, so you hire some fake protesters.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t go along to see one of the company’s fake fan events (as they’re super secret,) so I went along to a fake protest they organized in Los Angeles, instead. While there, I sat down for a chat with Crowds on Demand’s founder and CEO, Adam Swart.
How many people are protesting here?
About 20.
Are any of these guys real protesters or are they all provided by you?
They’re all provided by me.
Can I ask how much they’re getting paid for this?
They get $15 an hour.
Your company also provides fake fans for things, right?
Yes, we surround people with an entourage. Security guards, paparazzi, fans—all the trappings of celebrity. It’s like the whole experience of being famous. You’ll be walking down the Vegas Strip or the Hollywood Walk of Fame and everyone will think you’re an A-lister.
And who uses that service?
A lot of tourists will use it. People in the entertainment industry use it, people who are up-and-coming and want to increase hype for their name.
How much does that cost?
It all depends, it starts at the low thousands, though.
What would “the low thousands” provide me with?
A couple of photographers, five or six fans, and two security guards. A small entourage, but you don’t need alarge entourage to get attention.
Say a cause you don’t agree with wanted to hire protesters. For instance, some kind of company who wanted to cause huge and terrible environmental damage offered you $50,000 to gather protesters to support their cause, would you do it?
I don’t want to speculate hypothetically. I would look into each individual request and see whether it’s worth being involved in… We have organized protests on behalf of private businesses before. But I don’t want to speak in hypotheticals.
With so many young people unemployed and living at home, you can be sure this trend will only grow in the years ahead.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Nothing new here. My parents used to say that the girls screaming for Sinatra were all paid.
actually kind of cool.. can i hire 50k of them to march on the Bernake bunker! $15 an hour is an elite job these days ..
the german ärzte bund did sth like that a few years ago. the “protesting” docs send replacements for themselves, so they have freetime- cause in germany u r allowd to protest while worktime…u can figure the rest and yes ppl get paid for that- just look up “gewerkschaften”.
First thought that came to my mind was the similarity to crisis actors, but that is a different subject. Paid to play your role.
So people are getting CASH to protest? what a joke…. no wonder why this country is going to crap.