Sign Of The Times

Back during the election cycle I made my feelings known regarding people putting out those little signs with a candidate's name on their lawns. Basically, I think they do more harm than good (especially when it comes to local elections) because what if you don't particularly like your neighbors? You may vote against their choice out of spite. On top of that I don't appreciate the ego involved to actually think your neighbors give a crap about which side can expect your support this election day. If they really wanted to know which side you hoped would win they would have asked you themselves. Lastly, I also don't like them because I feel like people use them to try and appear as though they care about politics even though putting a sign on your lawn is very close to being the least you could do. It takes 4 seconds to put up a sign, but if you really wanted to help that candidate get elected pick up a clipboard and start collecting signature. Perhaps my feelings would also be different if I thought for a second these things even worked, but I have never heard of anyone having their mind changed by reading something on their neighbor's yard while the drove passed at 25 mph. I truly think most third-party endorsements are rubbish in any form because it is absurd to assume that just because one person liked the way something was done that a completely different person with a completely different set of standards would have the same experience. Here's how I know the lawn sign is useless - if the political lawn sign were outlawed tomorrow, would anyone even notice? I say no.

Now, you would think that would be leading the charge to put an end to all type of lawn-sign advertisement but there is at least one area in which I think they still come in handy and that is home improvement. If you drive by a house that used to look terrible until it was recently updated with new siding, it now looks great and you are thinking about doing the same thing for your house being able to see who did the work without getting out of your car makes a tremendous amount of sense. The same goes for things like roofing or even windows. But in that industry, exactly how far the usefulness of this street advertising extends depends greatly on what kind of home improvement work is being done. A house down the street from me currently has a sign in the front yard to let people know they just had some work done. It looked like a home improvement company's sign so as I approached I assumed it was for siding, roofing or perhaps some landscaping. It was only once I got close enough to actually read the sign that I saw it was for bathroom remodeling. What possible good does this do for anyone involved? There is nothing outside the house to indicate how the work turned out. Hell, I'm not even sure they are done yet. Unless my neighbors are having an open house where they will allow strangers to inspect their new bathroom to judge the final product than it doesn't much matter who did the work.

This is why I think if I owned a home improvement company I would drive around until I found the nicest house on a very busy street, then I would simply ring the doorbell and ask about renting some space on their lawn. Just offer them a few dollars to stick my sign out there for a couple weeks and allow everyone that passes by to assume my company did some work in there and since the house is really nice they would assume my company did really expensive and classy work. (I'm convinced this is what happened at my parents' house. A guy came to fix the gutter on the back of the house, put up a sign for his roofing company up for the two days while he was working there (again, not on the roof but a gutter) and didn't take it with him when he left. That thing sat in their yard for weeks before my father finally realized the guy was not coming back for his sign and got rid of it. You're welcome for the weeks of free advertising.) The people who own the house also benefit because their neighbors are going to assume they must be doing really well if they can afford to have the bathrooms re-done. The only way this backfires is if the people in the house say something to blow the illusion or allow people to come in and check out their house and their bathroom stinks. (Given the fact this imaginary family allows a total stranger to put a fake sign on their lawn for attention I guess the idea they would allow strangers in to look at their bathroom is entirely possible.)

Going back to advertising for work which was actually done, if you are going to broadcast things to the world which you had done that no one else can see, why stop at home improvements? Why not start just advertising products you like and use frequently but that no one else knows about? I honestly think I care more about what brand of television my neighbor uses and what he thinks of it than I ever will about who he wants to see in the Oval Office. The fear of course is that if this goes unchecked people will start putting up signs in their lawn for any product which is added to their home and the next thing you know every street in America looks like the 95 turnpike. It would only be convenient for thieves to know which houses to rob to make the most money for their effort. You know, skip the houses which advertise brands you've never heard of and head straight for the house that just put up a sign for Sony in their yard to announce they bought a Playstation 4. (Dear Sony, despite making this snarky observation I am totally willing to do this in exchange for a Playstation 4.) But that extreme scenario aside, my point is that even if they are very cheap to produce it just seems like wasted money for any construction company whose work will be entirely inside the house to put a sign up outside of it. Better to just make you sure you do good work, because with how many awful contractors there are out there that will get your more business than a tiny sign ever would.