Diving for Dollars
Written by Dawn Roberts, Melissa Haeffner
and Jerry Boyle
Photos by Dawn Roberts

Shoppers at Water Tower Place had a unique experience this April Fools day; instead of money leaving their pockets, it fell on top of them.

Grim looking people gave up their sunny Sunday to walk the fluorescent halls of this consumer's paradise. At 1:30pm a hundred one dollar bills were tossed from the seventh floor of the shopping center down on to the
unsuspecting shoppers below.There were activists and media scattered around the seven floors of Water Tower Place recording the event. A "tossing team" accompanied by legal
council convened on the top floor.

Watching intently the path of the falling money, adults and children alike were scrambling for the bills, yelping and laughing. Their sour faces turned into smiles as they looked up in expectation of more money falling from the sky. A few of the patrons took this opportunity to have a friendly chat with each other. Happy exclamations rang out from one stranger to another, "I've got two!" As the money fell, people stood on benches, leaned precariously over railings and even shook money down that lighted on top of the food court umbrellas.

AdBusters, a magazine that satirizes consumer culture, sponsored these April Fools actions. According to their website more than 46 locations the world over confirmed their intentions to do this "money drop." Their site states that groups who pull off this prank and send AdBusters their video will be reimbursed the $100.

Members from many activist groups from all over Chicago thought this would be a fun and effective social commentary. They hope to show people how powerful money is. "We wanted to demonstrate how greedy people are and hopefully to make people realize how concerned they are with money," one money tosser said. The reimbursed money will be donated to Chicago Independent Media Center.

After the money was dropped, the crew watched the after effects. "People's reactions were funny."


www.chicago.indymedia.org
www.adbusters.org

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