Americana: A Marketing Squeeze

Christopher Harris, 40, a curly-haired Californian with tinted glasses, has an odd occupation. He steps out of a rented Cadillac limousine, approaches unwary pedestrians and asks: “Do you mind if I give you a hug?”

The purpose of these impertinent propositions is supposed to be market research. An Ohio firm that sells animal-shaped plastic planters wondered whether sales would increase if its clerks hugged every customer.

Harris, a professional street pollster, has been seeking the answer to that momentous question for the past two months in Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. “I’ve been slapped and spit on and threatened with arrest,” says he, “but by and large the response has been good.” Some 1,000 people —more than 70% of those he has propositioned—embraced the idea.

Harris finds this a pleasant sign of changing times. “People are loosening up,” Harris says. “They want to say hello on the elevator. They want to be friendly. If people hugged one or two times a day, they would feel relief from tension and anxiety. But many don’t know how.”