French salesman Dagobert Renouf had long been dreaming of marrying his then-fiancée Anna Plynina, but he was too poor to afford a proper wedding. To put it plainly, he was completely broke and on the verge of homelessness. That was no reason to deprive his beloved of the wedding she had been dreaming of, so back in July he took to social media to announce that he was becoming a human billboard, offering his suit jacket for advertising. The post went viral, and he ended up with 26 brand names on his jacket for a total of $10,000 in advertising fees. On October 25, Dagobert married Anna in front of only 16 people, wearing a suit jacket featuring the names of the 26 startups that had made his dream possible. The guests loved the idea, but he was constantly stressed about the visibility of all the logos. Making the jacket on short notice wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but he made it a reality. The suit ended up costing $5,200, out of the $10,000 worth of sponsorship slots he sold. Then, because of his current entrepreneurship status in France, Dagobert couldn’t even expense it, so he still had to pay $2,500 taxes on the $10,000. He basically got a free suit and $2,000 out of it. Although the unique advertising project didn’t quite pay for the Frenchman’s wedding, it did help him land a dream job. An entrepreneur from his community was impressed by how dedicated Dagobert was and how he managed to sell so many slots so fast. He offered him a job at Comp AI, a fast-growing startup in New York, and it turned out to be the best job he could have hoped for.
