Two Signs

One of the things that I noticed when I went to visit back home was all the political campaign stuff. They love the roadside signs back home. There are crowds of them every place that it is legal to put them, or it at least seems that way. There is relatively little variety to them, and so I am tempted to vote for anyone who makes stylistically bold choices. There was someone who went with orange and mustard yellow as dominant colors several years ago, it seems to me. I liked that.

This time around, I saw something very interesting. It was actually an advertisement by a local sushi restaurant that explicitly endorsed Barack Obama. I thought that was bold, but unquestionably bad business, especially in suburban Phoenix. That had to cost way more prospective customers than it could possibly gain. I wouldn't even have recommended that in nominal college town Tempe. As it turned out, it wasn't what it seemed.

Driving down that same street in the opposite direction later in the same day, I discovered that of course the sign I'd seen was part of a matched pair. The second one endorsed Mitt Romney. The restaurant, it seems, had decided to woo both liberals and conservatives. Maybe they had hoped that each would only see the sign pandering to them. I wonder if they tried to figure how to have the highest percentage of people see the one that they wanted them to see.

Personally, I liked the place a lot less when I saw through their idea. That's not to say that I liked it very much at all the other way. I like talking politics less and less. All that ever seems to happen is division, for no one is prepared to have their mind changed anymore. There seems no point in bringing it up anymore, and it does not help any that it is now fair game for some lame attempt to promote a sushi restaurant. No, I didn't like those signs.