A Sign of Humor

Noticing differences in advertising and public forms of communication is one interesting part of living in a different country. In Australia, it’s particularly easy since everything is in English. There are the expected variations in vocabulary, for example at the supermarket you are directed to park your “trolley” rather than a “shopping cart”, but others are surprising. On the train and bus you are instructed to yield your seat to “aged or crippled persons” rather than “elderly or disabled”. I don't think P.C. speech has caught on here.

The signs or ads I like best are the ones that typify the wry, somewhat self-depreciating, sense of Aussi humor. Rather than the macho or sporty type of Aussi male, a bumbling middle-aged man is more often featured as in the beer ad stating “The model wears Carlton” (a popular beer), with a somewhat sheepish, sloppily dressed bloke with beer split down his shirt. In the same vein is the shirt ad billboard that proclaims “Stands up to blood, sweat, and beers.”



While out on my wanderings I took a few pictures of signs I found along the way that seemed to typify this appreciation for the humorous side of things. However, I didn’t have my camera when we passed my most recent favorite (juvenile as it may be), the “Big Ass Sign Company” which I suppose manufactured large signs and had, as you probably guessed, a donkey as their mascot.