Police in England have been criticized for posting signs with obvious messages such as “Caution: water on road during rain,” and “All fuel must be paid for,” according to a BBC report.
The Plain English Campaign, a language watchdog group, claims the signs don’t deter criminals and are an insult to everyone else’s intelligence.
A spokeswoman from the campaign blames branding and “the obsession companies have with covering themselves” for the obvious messages.
But obvious signs have been around for quite some time, as proven by this photo sent to us by reader Brenda Rathier. It’s from a Canadian WWII museum and was originally posted near a battlefield trench:
Photo: Brenda RathierHere’s another obvious one from blog reader David Gusaas:
Photo: David GusaasWhat other painfully obvious signs have you come across?
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Any music CD or software CD that says ” Do not make illegal copies of this disk.”
Top Gear has been on this from early 08. There seems to be a related Flikr group here -
http://www.flickr.com/groups/top_gear_pointless_road_signs/
I like ones that are incorrect. “This movie has been formatted for your screen” How do they know what kind of TV I have?
“Thank you for not smoking” has a bit of an assumption to it.
But to stay with the spirit of the article, Wide Load signs leave me saying “No kidding”
This isn’t a sign, but it was stating the obvious nonetheless. Last week during the bitter cold spell, the local news ran a segment on tips for dealing with cold weather. Suggestions included wearing a hat and going indoors periodically.
McDonalds disclaimer on it’s coffee that contents are hot! always seemed a bit obvious, but McDonalds was sued over this and I believed lost over a million Big Macs in court. It would seem many of these signs/warnings are a result of these kinds of lawsuits. So as obvious as they may be I can’t blame their existence given our legal system
E Olson in #3:
Until recently, all televisions were the same dimensions and this was different from the dimensions the film was shot in. So movies were re-formatted to fit the standard 4:3 TV screen.
On a set of Christmas lights I bought last year.
“For indoor and outdoor use only.”
Um…what else is there?
There’s a lot of urban legend behind that ‘McDonald’s Hot Coffie Lawsuit’. There’s a reason why McDs settled out of court for a substantial, but unknown, amount of money.
Eight days in hospital and skin grafts may have had something to do with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants