Two Can Play

Fall during an election season always produces a bumper crop of signs. They pop up everywhere. But certain places reliably grow a new batch every season. The area across the street from the local Costco is one such area.

One thing that becomes evident with signspotting experience is that professional signs are easy to spot. The art of the campaign sign is well-established by now, and the guidelines are simple. Large fonts, limited text, high contrast. If the colors of a favorite local sports team can be worked in, so much the better. Slogans are best saved for very large signs, and even then, they need to be short; there isn't much time to read when cruising by at between 30 and 45 miles per hour. Of course, not all of the signs that embrace these rules were placed by professionals. But one can be fairly certain that those that don't follow the rules were not.

These two residents of the Costco-area sign patch illustrate the point. Even "Trump Weak" doesn't stand out very well, being red on black. Even in the Middle Ages is was understood that this brought contrast problems. And the broader message? There's no way that anyone who wasn't stopped right next to one of these signs was going to read it. (These signs are two sides of the same thing, one message to a side.)

In any event, what stood out about these signs for me was the messaging. It seemed to be little more than taking a Trump-style message and turning it back on the President. And this is another thing that marks signs as amateur for me. Who is really going to be swayed by this messaging? Who out there was thinking of re-electing the President, but now that they've seen someone engage in calling him "weak" is rushing to reconsider?

For all that they're definitely not professional-grade, someone likely spent a decent amount of money having this printed up. I wonder if they received the value that they hoped for.