Random clowns

We're all familiar with the costumed characters (Barney, Big Bird, King Kong, etc.) standing on the side of the road waving at passing cars supposedly to entice drivers into shopping at a particular store. I can't say this marketing strategy has ever worked with me, but the proliferation of these characters along our roadsides suggests it works with some people (people with kids, I reckon). Yesterday, while driving on Route 9, I noticed a group of clowns beckoning before the entrance to a shopping center. Halloween is approaching, I figured, and a costume store had commissioned these clowns to get the word out. A mile or two later, however, on the opposite side of the highway, I saw a lone clown standing and waving in front of a wooded area. What was the point of this random clown? Was he affiliated with the other clowns or was he some sort of renegade clown, waving at cars without a sponsor or proper credentials? These questions led to other more disturbing questions. What if only a small percentage of these roadside characters are connected to commerce? What if a large number of them are really mentally unbalanced individuals who have jumped on the roadside character bandwagon? Or, even more sinister, what if there was a conspiracy afoot to disperse random clowns along our highways just to fuck with our heads and make us buy shit?