Nothing! gets attention

Another Cracker Barrel billboard flies past. My forehead rests against the cool of the window in the passenger seat, and I glance to my left to look at my mother out of the corner of my eye. She is in her own personal cruise control, jamming out to Elton John’s Greatest Hits. “Rocket man up here burning out his fuse alone…”


I enjoy these drives up and back from State College, I really do. I look back to the blur of the road, letting my eyes glaze over in surreal contentment, relaxing into the laziness that sets in once you’ve settled down and realized that nothing needs to get done in the four hours you are in this car. In fact, there might even be a lonely pillow somewhere in the back…


A blaring white rectangular billboard with large black letters appears on the horizon. My eyes alight to it instantly; the contrast with the green and brown of the Pennsylvania landscape is sharp indeed. Squinting at first, I am able to decipher the large letters and a little later the small black ones underneath as we hurtle toward the sign.

Nothing!

It’s what gets done when you don’t advertise.

I have about a second to imprint this billboard in my memory. I think the company it is promoting is, shockingly, an advertising company…ahhhh…clever. I admire their style! The sign is devoid of color, so it attracts the eyes away from the surroundings. The stark, blank white gives off the impression of emptiness and a lack of purpose, while the large black letters utilize that emptiness and fill it with a message: nothing. We think of nothing as a negative thing, something we want to avoid. There is “nothing on this board"...that is their message. They are saying that because you have not advertised using this empty billboard, you will get nowhere because “nothing gets done when you don’t advertise”…so advertise.