Signifying: Let Puns Rule

One of a series of occasional posts about signs — sign posts.

Plays on words are a perennial feature of signs. Puns catch the attention and — the designers hope — make whatever’s being advertised or promoted more memorable.

Here are two examples encountered this week in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

First, a drugstore:

That’s good. Don’t you at least want to go in to learn if they have a discounted price on that hard-to-find scent that costs a week’s pay for a quarter of an ounce?

My favorite this week, though, was on the campus of the University of New Mexico, home of the Lobos. When we visited Albuquerque three years ago, banners on light poles around the campus featured versions of the Lobo logo as it’s evolved over the decades. The current signs have a verbal approach, rather than figurative.

Clever. Works for me. If I were a young English major again, or even a Spanish major, I’d be happy living La Vida Lobo.

Have a sign that caught your interest? I’d be glad to hear about it in a comment.

© Brad Nixon 2016, 2017