This was originally published on my old blog BackpackBook (Livro de Mochila), a project that blended literature and travel, sometimes just traveling in my lucid dreams. It ran as âUma viagem que nĂŁo tem preçoâ on June 20, 2007.
A question for the adventurers. What would you make of deliberately landing your balloon in a city you’ve never heard of, with no documents and no luggage and nothing on you at all except a credit card?
Even though I’ve renounced my adventurous spirit, I’d think it was fantastic, because on the way back from a trip we came up with something similar. On some day without much planned, we’d arrange to meet everybody at the bus station, decide the destination with a coin toss, and set off carrying only a small backpack with the absolute minimum inside.
At a certain point, once the clothes were nearly coming to life, we’d buy new ones and give the old ones away, and carry on under that philosophy. I get emotional just remembering the idea. That’s one we definitely won’t let get away.
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However incredible a trip is, the best part is still coming home, and it’s usually on the way back into the old routine that the best ideas for the next trip turn up.
Back to the balloon story, and far, very far from advertising a credit card, what I meant to talk about is the new MasterCard traveler campaign. Congratulations to the people at McCann Erickson, who worked across the different media very well. They even say lost luggage has been turning up at airports with little signs saying “Tired of waiting for the plane, went by balloon”. The joke suits the current chaos perfectly, though I don’t believe it’s part of the strategy.
Another of the famous internet rumors is that the actor from the commercial is genuinely taking that trip and posting on the MasterCard traveler blog. The second part is true. The first one, less so. Besides the blog there’s the interactive campaign site, where it’s worth pointing out that you can train your flying skills over a map of Brazil and vote on new characters for the campaign.
The campaign’s theme song makes you want to leave. Sound on.
Alternative or not, a trip never has a price. The moments you live, the landscapes you cross and the people you meet are all unpayable, plus of course the comic disasters, the unplanned changes, and getting home delighted with life, laughing about how you got out of the mess this trip turned into.
Which reminded me of some memorable moments with Cassio (Cazzo) Lacerda and Raquel (Mimi) Dotta:
- Vitamin B capsules, on the belief that two a day will scare off the mosquitoes: R$ 20.00
- A complete three person tent, minus the parts you donated to a friend so he wouldn’t be left out in the rain, and ending up sleeping in the rain because of it: R$ 120.00
- Getting home with a strange smell of vitamin B, covered in bites, filthy and soaked, and desperate for the next trip: priceless.
- For every other mess, only unlikely places with good humored friends.
And you, have you been on any of these trips with no price?