Signage
One thing that never ceases to amuse me about elections is the yard signage. What’s the logic behind these? Do the people who put them up just want to show their affiliation to their neighbors? Do they think these influence people? Do they, either individually or in aggregate? I wonder if anyone has ever just said “fuck it, I’m gonna drive down the road and vote for whoever has the most signs.” Maybe people keep a running subconscious sign tally in their heads and that comes into play in the voting booth. Or maybe it’s just a giant, aesthetically displeasing waste of resources.
Has anyone ever measured their effectiveness at determining the outcome? It might be a great indicator if it influences the independent vote. Or it might not, because they don’t give a good indication of the independent vote and don’t have any effect on it. I really don’t know, but I’d love to find out. If it is a reliable indicator, it’s the easiest, least biased one to measure.
Why don’t people have yard signs for anything else? People don’t really express their affinity for other brands the way they do politicians. And yes, politics are a brand, just like Coke or Gillette. You might say that people care about politics more, but I don’t believe it because I read tech blogs and have seen the mindless devotion Apple has inspired and the mindless hatred Microsoft has. The average American opens a can of Coke or Pepsi more times in one week than they vote in their entire lives. And given the health crisis we’re facing, and the almost incontrovertible evidence that it derives from our diet, the contents of that can may matter far more in their future than who gets elected tomorrow.
I wonder if there’s a profitable enterprise in printing yard signs for things like Pepsi or Apple. You’d think folks would want to express their loyalty to other brands as well. Maybe I should print up some signs for Heinz and Hunts and see what happens. Maybe the lack of an expiration date would make them unpopular. At least with a politician, you know there’s a certain date after which you can throw it in the trash, but Heinz is still going to be selling ketchup for the foreseeable future.
Also, if we’re going that far, we don’t even need brands. We can just make ones that say “I really like prime rib.” You’d be exposing your preferences to the world, and you’d have the added bonus of deterring vegans. Actually, if someone would make a sign that says “Vegans will be shot on sight.” I’d nail it to a tree.
Walking my dogs around my neighborhood a while back, I was subconsciously noticing signs and thought “wow, I can’t believe this area is so in favor of Obama.” I live in a pretty rural suburb, and would have guessed it to be McCain country. Then on the way back I noticed that they were mostly McCain/Palin 08 signs, they were just colored blue and white.
What the hell? Democrat signs are supposed to be blue, and Republicans red. Why did the parties get those colors? I don’t know and I don’t care. That’s just the way it’s always been. I have to think McCain’s made a serious mistake in breaking with the convention there. When I’ve passed by 10 of his signs in a row, not really paying attention, and thought they were for his opponent, something is wrong.
If there’s one key thing I’ve learned from studying usability, it’s that when you do something that is the opposite of what a people expect, it creates confusion. Switch from Windows to Mac and see how long it takes you to adjust to the close button being top-left rather than top-right (or, for the more computer literate, alt+w rather than ctrl+w) or vice versa. Neither is, as far as I can tell, any better than the other, but the difference really throws you for a loop until you adjust. If people expect McCain’s signs to be red, McCain should make his sign red, unless there’s a very compelling reason not to. Maybe it’s because he’s perceived as being hot-tempered, and we all know red is the color of anger.
My neighborhood is about a 50/50 split in terms of Obama and McCain signs, but that’s only because a few houses have multiples. One apparent Democrat has at least 10 signs in a row. Every day I drive by and he seems to have another. I’ve seen a few other houses with more than one Obama sign, some of them cleverly spaced apart so you’d almost think it was two separate yards unless you looked close enough, but I’ve yet to see two McCain/Palins.
Maybe ACORN is involved.
November 4, 2008 at 5:00 pm
from: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/breaking…
Listen.
Organizers – the people out there killing themselves to win this election – hate yard signs with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.
Barack Obama’s organizers hate them. John McCain’s organizers hate them. It’s because yard signs don’t vote – but they do generate a ridiculous amount of complaining that must be patiently listened to. Until yard signs sprout little legs and go to the polls on Election Day, in a presidential election with universal name recognition they are just a nice little decoration.
November 5, 2008 at 7:08 am
I think signs are useful for more local positions. When I was voting, I found a few elections (e.g. school board) where I didn't know the candidates, their positions, or anything about the race. I abstained from voting in these instances, but I can see people voting based on how many signs they've seen, or who has those signs. E.g. “my neighbor Bob like this guy, and Bob is a good guy, so why not.” Or “a lot of people seem to like this Doris lady, I'll vote for her.”
It is silly to vote this way, but I'll bet it is pretty common. Maybe not as common as “this guy is from my party, therefore I'll vote for him regardless” but with independents I'll bet signs matter.
November 5, 2008 at 11:41 am
yard signs don't vote but the people 'attached' to them surely do. The purpose is similar to that of any advertising…get the name in front of people b/c it might inspire them to try the product (or in the case of politics, do some research on the candidate and vote for them in the election).
as for why there aren't yard signs for consumer products…well, there may not be yard signs but there are t-shirts, stickers, pens, etc etc that people use all the time. Think about those Apple stickers you see on cars – not much different than a yard sign.