It's always polite to wave back

It's that time of year again, and you'll see them on just about every corner now. Every year right after New Years during tax time, you'll start seeing friendly people dressed in Statue of Liberty costumes standing on the side of the road waving at you. This seasonal job has been a steady tradition since 1998 in the United States. These friendly folks work outside in all sorts of rough weather for the Liberty Tax Service.

The Liberty Tax Service is well respected and very well known for its wavers, who are people in Statue of Liberty costumes and sometimes even Uncle Sam costumes. This type of advertising, which Liberty Tax Service uses is a form of guerrilla marketing. This type of marketing is a strategy in which low-cost unconventional means are utilized to promote a product. In this case it's Liberty's Tax Service. Guerrilla marketing focuses on low cost creative strategies of marketing, with the intentions of getting the maximum results from minimal resources. That's where all of these friendly waving folks come into play.

The job depending on the area has different titles like guerrilla marketers, wavers, marketing, and costume sign wavers. The requirements for a waver basically are you must be able to wear a particular costume, have plenty of energy & enthusiasm, and be a out going friendly people person. In exchange you'll get paid to wave, dance and have lots of fun as a Liberty Tax costumed character.

Finally curiosity got the best of me, and one day I stopped and talked for a few minutes to one of the Statue of Liberty wavers. This particular Statue of Liberty waver's name was Lizzy, and she was a smiling short curly haired girl with glasses. Lizzy was spinning a sign around that read " Honk if you love Liberty". I asked Lizzy what she liked about her job, and she was more then happy to tell me.

Lizzy said that this was her second year doing this, and that it's a lot of fun. She said she likes working in the fresh air outside, and after 45 minutes she gets a 15 minute break, and she added where else can a person listen to their iPod all day at work. She said that it's a job, and she gets to see and meet all types of interesting people.

She likes not being cramped up in an office or factory somewhere for 8-12 hours a day, and she likes being able to stretch her legs. Lizzy said it's not hard back breaking work, and that she stays in shape with all of the activity and exercise without the expense of a gym membership. Before I left Lizzy said that she just might even get discovered someday by Hollywood doing this. She said after all Pamela Anderson got discovered from off of a Jumbo-tron at a ballpark to star in the television show Baywatch.

So with tax season back with us again, the next time you pass by a friendly waving Statue of Liberty, take a second and wave back to them. You might just make somebody's day a little bit brighter. :)