Designated bus seating for friendly people in Brazil

Zeze biscuits have launched a marketing campaign in Brazil to encourage socialising — assigning seats on public buses for travellers who want to make friends.

Public spaces are increasingly dominated by screens and technology-led communication, so we’re starting to see a number of reactionary initiatives designed to detach the consumer from their smartphone and bring them back into the real world.

The Talk To Me London project, for example, used badges to encourage face to face communication, and now, in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, snack company Zeze Biscuits and Mark+ marketing have launched the Alimentando Amizades — or Feeding New Friends — campaign, to encourage social interaction on public buses.

Each bus has a designated area marked ‘reserved seating for new friends.’ Willing participants simply take a seat and wait for a like-minded traveller to join them. There is even a pack of post-it notes containing conversation starters. The campaign was created in the hope of promoting communication and positivity in an otherwise mundane space. Are there other ways of transforming people’s monotonous commute into a potential marketing space?