Ad of the Day: San Francisco Is Shocked by a Store Where Everything Costs Five Times the Norm

California's Bay Area—home to nine counties, from Alameda to San Francisco—has always been an enclave of diversity, both in terms of ethnicity and cost of living. But thanks to Silicon Valley, median household income has skyrocketed to $153,057—about five times more than families who live below the poverty line, which clocks in at about $24,300. Consider what this does to the cost of rent and other everyday expenses. One in 10 Bay Area families (about 788,000 people in all) live below the poverty line. To raise awareness about this massive dissonance, San Francisco agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners took over a grocery store in the upscale Nob Hill neighborhood and charged regulars "Poverty Line Prices"—inflating products to five times their normal cost, with hidden cameras rolling. Under "Poverty Line Prices," created for the poverty-fighting organization Tipping Point Community, four rolls of toilet paper skyrocket from $3.46 to $17.30. Monthly bus passes, which normally cost $73, jump to $365. And milk goes from $4.88 to $24.40. Patrons were filmed freaking out over the markups: "The Bay Area is a tale of two cities: the haves and the have-nots," says GS&P co-chairman Rich Silverstein. "We wanted people to get a small sense of the reality of living on the poverty line to truly understand the importance of Tipping Point's mission." To calculate the prices used in the Poverty Line campaign, GS&P took the average costs of necessities and determined what percentage of a paycheck each item represents for a family living on the poverty line—whose figure is a federal standard guideline. The resulting percentage was applied to the much higher average San Francisco take-home pay, gleaned from the U.S. Census Bureau. Average item costs were provided by expatistan.com, and textbook prices came from collegeboard.org. So, in the case of eggs—which jump from $6 to $30 for a dozen—the latter figure represents the percentage of weekly income that eggs typically take up for a poverty-line family. A matching coupon insert will run in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (a nice way to dampen the feeding frenzy around Black Friday—imagine books more expensive than a widescreen TV). And a website, TippingPoint.org, lets users plug in their incomes to learn how people below the poverty line would feel if they had to pay prices you might deem normal. We gave it a go, using an $80,000 benchmark. The cost of milk rose to $14—far less than it costs in this campaign, but it still pinches. (Then again, we're not the Hilton family.) Earlier this year, Canadian agency Wax used a similar approach to raise awareness for the territory of Nunavut, where a week's groceries actually can cost a family of three about $430. Sadly, there aren't many wealthy tech moguls there. The region is primarily home to indigenous Inuit, whose average income is about $14,000—well below the poverty line guideline in Tipping Point's campaign. "Every day, more than 1 million Bay Area residents are forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying the rent, buying medicine and paying for school books," says Daniel Lurie, CEO and founder of Tipping Point Community. "Lack of financial resources is just one of the many challenges facing those living below the poverty line." Tipping Point, which has existed for about 11 years, screens and invests in nonprofits that educate, employ, house and support Bay Area inhabitants who are too poor to meet basic needs. Since its inception, it's raised over $120 million to back its cause. And because the Board of Directors covers its fundraising and operations costs, 100 percent of donations goes to those in need. Last year, it helped 22,000 people whose resources were dwindling toward poverty. "In a region with so many resources and so much creativity, we simply have to do more to help break the cycle of multigenerational poverty in the Bay Area," says Lurie. Having grown up in the Bay, we feel a particular affinity to this campaign. Silicon Valley has done the world a lot of good, but it has also transformed neighborhoods overnight—turning once-diverse enclaves into minimalist tech-friendly spots where "brogrammer" culture has stamped out local color. While it's never been clear how to roll back the relentless advance of innovation-driven gentrification, GS&P is right in observing this may be a particularly salient sticking point today. "Given last week's election, I think people are looking for some action to take—whether that be to protest or spread the word/educate themselves about an issue that's important in our country," says GS&P's PR director Meredith Vellines. Users are encouraged to share the message on social via the hashtag #povertylineprices. They can also donate to Tipping Point's website. Check out the Chronicle "coupon campaign" below: CREDITS Client: Tipping Point Community Title of Creative Work: Poverty Line Prices Live Date: 11/17/16 Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners Creative Co-Chairman: Rich Silverstein Associate Creative Director: Tristan Graham Design Director: Chris Peel Production Director of Content Production: Tod Puckett Executive Broadcast Producer: Michael Damiani Senior Art & Print Producer: Noah Dasho Director of Interactive Production: Margarret Brett-Kearns Associate Technology Director: Andre Cardozo Interactive Producer: Tena Goy Photographer/Retoucher: Quinn Gravier Account Services Group Account Director: Michael Crain Assistant Account Manager: Will McPherson Brand and Communication Strategy Head of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan Deputy Director of Brand Strategy: James Thorpe Director of Communications: Meredith Vellines Director of Communications Strategy: Christine Chen Sr. Communications Strategist: Alex Oztemel Jr. Communications Strategist: Chloe Bosmeny Group Research and Analytics Director: Margaret Coles Jr. Quantitative Strategist: Ian Heath Business Affairs Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen Business Affairs Associated Manager: Annie Holmgren Production Company Company Name: EFilms Director: Timothy Plain Director of Photography: Jon Behrens Producer: Jefferson Curry Executive Producer: PJ Koll Content Creative: Andrew Butte Editorial Company Company Name: Elevel Editor: Erik Johnson Asst. Editor: Lori Arden Producer: Ali Plansky Music Atomic Music Track Title: Intricate Designs Mix Company Name: Elevel Mixer: Dave Baker

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Ad of the Day: San Francisco Is Shocked by a Store Where Everything Costs Five Times the Norm

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Angela Natividad

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