For starters, I hate the word “signage.”

That being said, this is a photo I took of a sign today as I was out hawking my cupcakes. It caught my eye mainly because it seemed incredibly flippant about a somewhat personal problem and I can’t again stress that the “Got Milk” campaign doesn’t really apply to every situation.

The reason I know this is because of an incident involving a T-shirt I bought at Joe’s Crab Shack in Denver with the phrase “Got Crabs” across the front. Normally I would not have worn such a shirt in public but as it was, being a night worker at a post office in which the public was rarely involved except on the day that that was my only clean T-shirt, I ended up asking, essentially, a very elderly woman a fairly personal question when she came to the half-door up front to pick up a package.

It’s for milk, and nothing else. Really.

Adding insult to this particular sign is the little placard off to the side, which is essentially a parasitic sign advertising the sign maker in case you, John Q. Public, would also like a sign. Normally, a company named Red Hott signs would be fairly benign, but stuck next to the phrase “Got Hemorrhoids” makes it a little, uh, uncomfortable.

I’m sure the Wendy’s in the background appreciates the free advertising.

Had I taken the photo a few steps back, you would have also seen an identical sign advertising lunch for a neighboring business. I’m not sure how they feel about their sign being next to this one, and so I threw them a bone and resisted the money shot.