Forget Pimp My Ride, Pimp My Carroça
São Paulo-based NGO Pimp My Carroça has one of those names that immediately arouses curiosity – whether on the part of Brazilians who only know the word “pimp” because of 50 Cent and Xzibit, or for English speakers who are thrown by “Carroça”. We at Sherlock Communications, as much as we would like to, can take zero credit for this name, which was already in existence for many years before we became involved.
Pimp My Carroça was founded in 2007 by Brazilian graffiti artist, Mundano. The original objective was to, quite literally, pimp the carroças, a type of hand-cart waste collectors use to accumulate recyclable trash. By reforming and spray-painting the carts, the often-underpaid, more-often homeless and almost-always ignored waste collectors would gain greater visibility.
It certainly worked on me. In August 2019, it seemed every time I stepped foot outside the Sherlock office in São Paulo, I would see a waste collector (or catador in Portuguese) and their brightly coloured carroça complete with Pimp logo. It didn’t take long for me to convince my team at Sherlock that we should reach out as part of our pro-bono work; it did take a long time, however, to persuade Pimp to accept our offer of complimentary PR assistance. They had never marketed themselves before, were relatively content and didn’t immediately see the benefits.
Ninety per cent of all Brazil’s recycling is done by catadores; without them, the country would barely recycle at all. Yet most Brazilians have very little idea of what catadores do and how their work directly affects their city, their country and their planet. Pimp’s goal then is to help provide catadores with improved working conditions, greater safety, better remuneration for their services and a higher standing in the community, which will boost their self-esteem and raise awareness regarding the importance of recycling.
