gfish: (Default)
gfish ([personal profile] gfish) wrote2002-12-24 03:13 pm

Washington State Signage

Our department of transportation likes clever signage. It started several years ago with a campaign to reduce speeding in construction zones: Give 'Em A Brake

Then a seatbelt usage campaign: Click-It Or Ticket

For drinking holidays: Drive Hammered, Get Nailed

They're a bit cutesy and I have doubts about the UI wisdom of complicating simple messages, but I guess they're okay. Except now there is a new one: Litter And It Will Hurt!

...am I missing something? Is this witty in some way that I am missing? Is there a hidden pun? I now spend my time driving across the state repeating it to myself, looking for the pattern.

Litter And It Will Hurt! LitTER And It WILL Hurt! LitterAndItWillHurt! Letter Bandit William Hurt! Litteranditwillhurt! Litantilurt!

I meditate upon it across the pass, through the gorge, across the plateau, past the channeled scab-lands.

Litter!
And!
It!
Will!
Hurt!

It is my koan.

Litter And It Will Hurt!

[identity profile] vixyish.livejournal.com 2002-12-24 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I note that "Give 'em a Brake" was added not long after several construction workers in succession were hit by speeding cars. It's therefore more literal than you might think.

I can't figure out "Litter and it will Hurt" either. Unless they've instituted beatings as punishment.
ext_8908: Flapping crane (Default)

[identity profile] bientot.livejournal.com 2002-12-25 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
A wild guess -- maybe it will hurt the environment and hurt the litterer who gets caught and fined? Lame, but the best I can come up with.

Cheery Mishmash, you all...

[identity profile] shadowblue.livejournal.com 2002-12-26 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
Litterand It'llhurt? Litter andit'll .. hurt...

Your DoT is crazy.

Also, you are crazy.

Dorxor.