Misreading
I am well aware that our brain often processes things through our particular lens.
We were driving by a billboard that read something akin to this…
Oh, I thought, after all these signs advertising the hospital as a beacon for those suffering a heart attack or experiencing cancer,* I’m glad they’re also touching on pregnancy loss with this big billboard about D&Cs. I wonder how many parents have had to have a conversation about D&Cs with their kids due to this sign. Just as well since we had to explain what a “gentleman’s club” was to the twins a few miles back. I wonder if it’s a problem; if local doctors are performing D&Cs in their offices and this hospital wants you to know “the D&C is in” their hospital. The D&C is in Big Local Hospital.
“Don’t you think that’s progressive for this area?” I asked Josh as we drove past. “The D&C is in Big Local Hospital.”
“Uh… Mel, that says ‘The Doc is in’. It’s an ad for the local hospital stating ‘The Doc is in’.”
“Oh. So that’s not a plus sign?”
Ooops.
* Considering it’s the only hospital for several hours, I’m not sure why they needed to advertise with that many billboards. I mean, it’s not as if Farmer Bob is running his own cardiac clinic out of his barn. We get it, Big Local Hospital. You’re where we go if we’re sick.
11 comments
Oh my. I saw the same thing as you. Why would they put the plus sign in the middle? Filters, indeed!
If it’s the hospital I think it is, the plus sign (or cross?) refers to its name. No?
But I sympathise. Or maybe they’re subtly reaching out to a general audience and a more specific one at the same time. 🙂
Hah, I thought it said D.O.C, like Department of Corrections. Clearly I’ve been watching too much Netflix. 😀
They may also be playing off the new “Doc McStuffins” show on Disney Junior. “The Doc is In” is one of her phrases.
In Finland we normally have three letter register signs in our cars. Guess if I have ever missed any of the IVF-ones?
Is it a Christian hospital? That plus sign might be something else entirely…in which case, D&Cs would be unlikely.
Even though I didn’t read it that way, it is an AWFUL billboard. They need a new advertising company.
(For the record, I read it as “The Doc is in” but also saw the DC as pertaining, well, to DC.)
Department of corrections or (much more fun) Department of Conservation (new Zealand).
As to why advertising- someone in the senior executive has just read an article about how important branding is and/or has a friend/relative in the outdoor marketing business.
I am always fascinated by marketing choices. A resort my family visits once a year was taken over by a mining billionaire. The signs went from tasteful eco signs to Bold black sans serif on a bright yellow background. very mining safety mode
Huh (I, too, am assuming that’s a cross and that the Big Local Hospital may not even provide D&Cs?). My workplace has a big initiative widely known by its initials, which are DE, which always mystifies me because — really, what do we have to do with donor egg? Nothing, that’s what. And, yes 3-letter strings are also part of our license plates, as (sort of) for PNG. So every now and then I see PGD, FSH, FET, or TSH (the last is a stretch, but my hypothyroidism was part of my IF), and … yeah.
Alexicographer, I keep seeing PMS starting license plates here in Georgia!
I do stuff like this all the time.