 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
|||
Oh, the subtleties of signs. I spotted the first sign here in downtown Benicia this weekend & had to photograph it, mostly because it’s just so … well, nice. It doesn’t tell you about laws against letting your dog make a mess, it doesn’t tell you you’ll be fined or what have you. It appeals to people’s health concerns instead.
Funnily enough, I’ve had a fascination with signs, and have a handful of “dog fouling” signs taken in Scotland. Some appeal to the better nature of the pet owner, some threaten by stating the text of some applicable statute, and some merely mention that there is a statute while making a graphical appeal.
Do these work? Would someone who was otherwise unmotivated find them motivational? Do they say something different to people from different cultures?
Personally, I find the appeal to self-interest to possibly be more motivational than the rest.
I guess that signs are meant to both inform and motivate. There’s something in each of the dog fouling signs, though, that appeals to self-interest, as if there’s nothing intrinsically valuable in having a park free from dog mess.
We can contrast these, though, with a sign spotted 3 years ago, embedded into the concrete above a storm-drain. This sign lets you know that anything dumped into the storm drain leads to the sea, and makes the – subtle – appeal to be concerned about the fish in the ocean. It’s playing on a concern for nature, rather than pointing out that it’s illegal to dump things* into storm drains. I suppose that the fish might also be an appeal to one’s health concerns, provided you care about what goes into the fish you eat, but it doesn’t seem that way, really.
The motivational aspect of the “no dumping” sign is to appeal to a supposed pre-existing concern for the environment. This is similar to the second dog-fouling sign (which appeals to the dog owner to “help us clean up our city”) in that it’s concerned with the environment, although for aesthetic reasons in the fouling sign, rather than focusing on healthy salmon.
In any event, signs are interesting things (and all the more interesting when they come with odd caricatures of animal waste).
-D
* I’m certain that it’s more than just “things” that you’re not supposed to dump, but that’s not the point.