Yesterday's news from SXSW was dominated by the announcement that BBH, one of the world's leading advertising agencies, had come up with an initiative within the festival (notorious for shoddy wireless connection) of giving homeless people 4G mifi devices; thus turning them into 4G Hotspots.

The homeless person wears a t-shirt announcing they had such a connection; anyone in need of it would sit near them and use it; and they'd pay for doing so.

So far, so appallingly exploitative.

However, the initial reaction (mine included, I won't lie), that this was a stomach churning display of the haves and have-nots and as low as humanity has sunk for quite some time, perhaps misses the point and ultimately the goal of the stunt.

The twitterverse was in full, splendid voice about the idea - labelling it vile, manipulative, degrading, insulting and heartless, with people wondering how BBH could possibly have let such an idea escape from the brainstorm it was born in. This morning's papers have been in equally splendid voice.

The question though, is whether the point of the stunt was to solve a long term problem with a long term solution, or whether it was to raise awareness of the social problem, spark debate around it and make people think about homelessness. BBH isn't renowned for being a governmental think tank, it's renowned for its advertising work and clever marketing - why should it come up with a long term plan to solve the problem of homelessness? Surely if a political party had suggested this we should be up in arms, but the fact a marketing agency has should surely make us think 'is this a stunt'?

Don't get me wrong, I think the idea of dehumanising the homeless and making them merely access points for the privileged to get their MacBook Air online is appalling, but I don't think this was actually the point. The Big Issue did a great job (and still does - to an extent, although it's perhaps waned in recent years) of raising awareness of homelessness without stuffing it down people's throats - perhaps this stunt is actually a great bit of work in revitalising the sometimes dismissive attitude ('no change, sorry mate'), many of us take to a very significant social issue?

Chris @wonky_donky