By Lauren Peters

The answer is staring you in the face

Brief:

GET Shoreditch Yuccies (Young Urban Creatives) who: write for counter-culture magazines about culture they despise yet are an intrinsic part of; gentrify neighbourhoods while complaining about gentrification; shoplift, but convince themselves it’s subversive because they only steal from corporate chains; partake in the ‘part-time blogger stroke full-time vegan’ scene; have 20 20 vision and a pair of empty frames; travel around on a one-gear fixie; refer to their bedrooms as ‘synth caves'; enjoy new age fun with a vintage feel; and generally speaking tend to meet people ‘before they are famous’

TO donate money to the homeless

BY demonstrating what’s in it for them

Proposition:

A snap so good you can’t afford not to

Execution:

Insta-dog

Results:

Phenomenal. In the short period I stood people-watching on Brick Lane (trying to figure out who was genuinely creative, who was posing as being creative and who was being creative ironically), I noticed at least 12 people walk up to Steve (homeless) and his casually-adorned dog, Russ. I mean christ. Problem-solution relevant-abruption to an absolute T. Steve had done his research, got to know his target market before proceeding to rinse each and every one of them* for an infinitesimal fraction of what they’re probably worth.

*Given I was amidst the crowds, there really is no denying that I too am definitely, probably, at least a little bit totally Yuccie (by definition this is exactly what I am).

Learning:

Get to know your audience – really, and remember to look up once in a while, the answer may just be staring you in the face.

+

For no other reason than to point and laugh, here are some SCA-ers with ‘the most hipster thing they’ve ever done’, starting with me:

Me - I covered an entire wall of my Bristol flat with second-hand vinyl records and Instagrammed it with the tagline ‘Statement wall #vinyl’

Krista - ‘I went to a social media conference just for the free craft beer’

Augustine - ‘I did a coffee shop tour of Melbourne using a book about coffee shops and ordered a soy latte every time’

Rollo - 'I snack on Sainsbury’s organic extra-mature cheddar and dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)'

Fenton - 'I never tried an avocado before they were trendy’

Miranda - ‘I occasionally eat quinoa and cayan to boost my metabolism’

James - ‘I spent a year growing my tache’

Daisy - ‘I worked for a startup social media app in an office with ping pong tables’

Jacob - ‘I ate avocado for breakfast, lunch and dinner’

Adeline - ‘I became a vegan for three months’

Christine - ‘I have origami tattoos’

Robyn - ‘I worked at a start-up in Haggerston as a digital designer, wore oversized shirts, RayBans and box fresh Nikes’

Alex - ‘I had a job for 3 months where I went into restaurants and took pictures of food’

Sophie - ‘I didn’t wash my hair for 2 months to see if it would self-clean. It did. But it smelt really bad.’

Anam - ‘I once went to a lush spa’

Sam - ‘Artisan’

The others are in denial.