Costa Rican TV dishes advertise the women’s startups housed below

Claro is donating the space on its dishes to help Costa Rican housewives earn income, by advertising the products they sell from home.

In Costa Rica, the branded television antenna that sit atop the houses of rural families have become a familiar part of the landscape. Despite their relative poverty, most households spend a large portion of their income on loans for flatcreens and TV signal. Now, Claro, one of Latin America’s largest telecommunications brands, is donating the space on its dishes — usually reserved for brand advertising — to help Costa Rican housewives generate extra income, by advertising the products they are making and selling from their homes.

Claro are sacrificing their ad space as part of the Signs of Progress campaign launched by the Costa Rican branch of Olgivy. Women were encouraged to create small startups based on their favorite household activities such as cooking tamales, giving hair tints or making pinatas. They then collaborated with local artists to paint beautiful, brightly colored billboards on their own satellite dish, advertising their produce or service to neighbors and passersby.

Could this scheme be repeated in other rural areas?