advance it

As I take public transit whenever I want to get anywhere that is beyond about 3km of where I live I tend to willingly or unwillingly notice the advertisements there are inside the bus along the top of the interior wall, or at bus stops, or at metro stations.

I've had this idea if I was super wealthy and had some millions to spare. I'd hire an advertising agency to come up with some obscure ads to place within the transit system, with just a few of them starting in February. More in each of March, April, May and June. By July, start giving hints that something is coming in December, in August and September, continue with the hints. In October be a little more specific about it being in mid-December and really ramp up the ads so they are displayed more often. On November 15 start the ads that state that this event will happen December 15th.

In the mean time, just with the help of my kids when they are able to help me, I'm preparing envelopes, 10,000 of them, that have in them a letter and some cash. The cash will always be two or three of a denomination, so 20,20 or 20,20,20, or 50,50 or 50,50,50, or 100,000 or finally 100,100,100. There would be more of the former and less of the latter but the envelopes would be randomized. It would take a long time so we'd start this envelope stuffing also in February. We'd put the envelopes, with representation of all of the values, into groups of 50. I stick with having my kids help me as I can trust them not to keep any of this cash to themselves, and also to keep this private.

For the letter that goes into the envelope with the cash, I'd check the census for the most commonly used languages apart from English and French and would have the top 5 or 6 translations (in addition to English and French) of a message something like this:

Enclosed is a gift for you. If you need it all, please use it. If you can share, please pay it forward. If you do share and are willing please share on social media with #15Decpayitforward how you shared it.

On the outside of the envelope, only in English and French, I'd put a message to instruct the person to simply open it in private. The idea is that if one person opens it and gets 2x100$ and then the person right next to her on the bus gets 2x20$ it wouldn't look too good.

Around October I'd put an ad into all of the local universities in the city asking for students to work for two hours on December 15th. I'd want coverage from about 6am until about 8pm, with many students during rush-hour travel times and fewer students during lower transit use time. There would be a student foreman role who would have to have a car and he would receive boxes or bags of the groups of 50 envelopes to distribute to his team of student-elves. A number of foreman/teams would be spread out all over the city. On December 15 the students would don their provided elf apparel, receive from their foreman a single box or bag of 50 envelopes and then go to a metro station that is also a popular bus terminal. Once that student sees a long enough queue for a bus that hasn't yet arrived, the student-elf will give each person in the queue an envelope. Once the student-elf has given to all in that queue, the student can move to a different bus queue, until all 50 have been given. Then the student is to coordinate with the foreman to get another 50 and either continue at that station, or go to a different one.

The night of December 15 I'd want all of the advertising that has been displayed throughout the transit system to be pulled as the event has ended.

During the day and night and the following days I'd be curious to see what in social media has happened; how have people shared it, and was there any media buzz about the whole event.