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Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Bathroom Walls Have a Suggestion

I was out with a friend the other night. We went out for shared appetizers and a couple of beers; and when I went to the bathroom, I found that the advertising in the stalls had taken an interesting and almost eerie twist…

First, I have to admit that I vacillate between interest and apathy regarding the bathroom-stall advertisements.

On the one hand, it’s certainly better than the misspelled graffiti I usually encounter.

On the other hand, is there no respite from the bombardment? Can I pee without a billboard suggesting better ways to spend my money than on dinner and drinks? How do I change the channel on this thing?

And yet on a third hand (sorry – wide stance! – and a big shout out to Larry Craig fans!), what better way to reach a captive and potentially drunk and therefore suggestible audience than by slapping up a poster in front of the toilet? I mean, who hasn’t walked out of a bathroom with a handful of tampons and rubbers (ribbed! for her pleasure!) simply because the wall near the sink suggested it? I’m not alone here, right?

Anyway, the advertising in question here was not really so much trying to sell a product as it was peddling some common sense. Here it is. Here’s what the bathroom wall told me:

Save Your Money and Some Day It’ll Do the Same for You.

Envision this, won’t you? At a bar and grill in Hopkins, Minnesota, known for its Beer Bingo and cover/dance party bands (rock on, Rock It Science!), the stall doors in the women’s biff think that maybe you should set down your beer, daub your napkin at the buffalo sauce on your lips and go home and put your change in that big jar you have on the floor in your closet.

I need to confess that this actually gave me a bit of a scare. I mean, what kind of economic times are we in for when the lavatory suggests that you set aside a little cash?

What does the bathroom door know that we don’t?

3 comments:

potsy said...

Hello Pearl.

ICKY said...

The best graffiti I ever saw on a bathroom wall was, in big bold letters, " I love fire"
Simple and to the point.

Pearl said...

Actually, the best graffiti I ever saw was written next to the condom machine. It said "Don't buy this gum. It tastes terrible."