{"id":715,"date":"2011-04-28T19:42:22","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T00:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.atomicnewstools.com\/pages\/?p=715"},"modified":"2012-01-28T19:43:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T01:43:38","slug":"signs-of-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/signs-of-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of the Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.<\/em>
\n\u2014 Five Man Electric Band ( I think)\u00a0<\/em>
\n|\u2014\u2014\u2014|<\/p>\n

Have you noticed the number of people standing along carbon monoxide-choked highways and at busy intersections, holding signs, prancing about in front of businesses? They are trying to entice drivers to pull in for a Mexican-food meal, a massage, vitamin supplements, or a car wash, to name a few I have seen. These were called sandwich boards back in the Depression when folks paced sidewalks with signs strapped over their shoulders covering both sides of their body in an a-frame fashion.<\/p>\n

Hoo boy. I know people need jobs. The unemployment rate is still far too high. McDonalds just held its widely publicized National Hiring Day with the goal of adding 50,000 new workers. As of this writing, I don\u2019t know if the burger behemoth was successful. I am quite certain I would rather work at Mickey Ds than stand out in the hot sun, eating exhaust while waving a sign at passersby.<\/p>\n

Admittedly I am biased when it comes to what type of advertising I think works best. I have been in the newspaper business since Lyndon Johnson was about to leave office, most families had black-and-white televisions, and newspapers were about four feet wide when spread open. But I\u2019ve never believed that newspapers are the only place folks should advertise. I always tell folks who ask that a mix of different media likely work best, depending on the type of business.<\/p>\n

But there are some goofy places that folks spend their advertising dollars, and hiring some poor soul to stand out and wave a sign doesn\u2019t seem a terribly efficient way to reach one\u2019s target market.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019m glad it provides jobs for folks who probably would not be working, since the skill level required isn\u2019t terribly high. But the economics don\u2019t make much sense to me. I saw four guys holding signs along Highway 183 and 620 the other day for the same business. Let\u2019s say the business is paying each only minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. And let\u2019s assume those poor souls are out there eight hours a day, five days a week. That totals $1,160 a week being paid out to people holding signs on street corners, which can barely be read by motorists whizzing by at 50 mph while talking on their cell phones. Give me that $1,160 a week and I\u2019ll put together a nice ad campaign in the newspaper and even let you have a little \u2014 not much \u2014 left over to run some radio spots.<\/p>\n

A search online using \u201cholding signs in front of businesses\u201d led me to
\nbumvertising.com, which uses homeless people to attach advertising placards to their panhandling signs. If you go to the site, it shows photos of folks who are down on their luck holding their crudely-lettered signs \u2014 \u201cNeed Food. Please Help,\u201d and the like. Attached to the bottom is a professionally printed sign for \u201cStrategic Domination.com. The Game of all Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The now 28-year-old Seattle entrepreneur who came up with this idea didn\u2019t return my e-mail, so it isn\u2019t clear to me if bumvertising.com is still in existence.
\nThe last post was in 2005 so probably not. I\u2019m always glad to see folks down on their luck make money, but \u201cbumvertising?\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, that doesn\u2019t sound to me like a great business plan, especially since calling someone a bum isn\u2019t exactly a compliment.
\nAnd a placard attached to a poor homeless fellow\u2019s \u201cNeed change for the bus stop\u201d sign isn\u2019t exactly going to entice me to visit a website.
\nI also don\u2019t understand buying ads on park benches or restaurant tabletops.<\/p>\n

Be honest. Have you ever decided to buy a product or use a service because you saw an ad plastered under your basket of fries? I think not.
\nAnd if someone is using the park bench as intended, you can\u2019t see those ads either because they\u2019re obscured by somebody\u2019s backside.<\/p>\n

I know everybody is just trying to get by these days best they can. And I do admire some of the dance routines displayed by the more energetic placard holders.<\/p>\n

Some of them know some pretty slick steps.<\/p>\n

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Print this entrySign, sign, everywhere a sign. \u2014 Five Man Electric Band ( I think)\u00a0 |\u2014\u2014\u2014| Have you noticed the number of people standing along carbon monoxide-choked highways and at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-40"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}