I’ve seen these all over Europe. Some have simple images of the cross flashing, some have windows screensaver esque animations, and some have 3d renders of various things rotating in all sorts of ways. Why is that? Wouldn’t a simple green cross be enough to get the point across, or do they need to be overly verbose? Here’s the video of what I’m talking about, if it didn’t load correctly
Never seen anything like this in Turkey. We have a simple red on white “E” (first letter of Eczane=Pharmacy) with maybe very timid color change animations, time and/or temperature switches.
As others have pointed out, these look like quite the distracting and cyberpunk dystopian ad signs, most unexpected for a core health institution.
Here in Portugal, most display useful info like date, time, outside temperature (with varying degrees of accuracy), as well as services provided by the pharmacy or some general (often season specific) health recommendation.
The use of a bright green sign is, of course, to seek attention, but it’s also useful to quickly spot an open place at night, when most are closed and only a few remain opened longer in each town/city neighborhood (called “farmácias de serviço”, i.e something like “pharmacies in service”; they usually rotate between themselves each week). Nowadays you can check which places are available at night through a nice website, but the signs remain a useful thing, nonetheless.
The animations are just a culture thing now, I’d guess. Different pharmacies employ different animations, some wackier, some less, though there are very common animations for sure, such as the one where a 3D cross is animated rotating on multiple axis at the same time, making a nice spin back to its original position.
Why? I dunno, they break up the usual info display and help grab attention? I dunno, you get used to it and it mostly gets filtered into the background heheI’ve seen a colour one like the one I posted below here in Portugal. It really is not an institutionalised thing, it’s just what the owner decides how wacky their place is gonna be.
Here in Portugal, most display useful info like date, time, outside temperature (with varying degrees of accuracy),
We have ones like this in the states too. My favorite near me is at a church. It cycles between temp and date, but the display has too few characters, so instead of just being two screens, date then temp, it’s 3 - day and month, a second screen that just says “/24” and then the temp.
Cool! Thought they weren’t common across the Atlantic.
They’re more seen at older businesses that have been there forever. Newer ones get newer signs, with more flashy displays.
You’re missing out, those are the tamer ones these days. https://youtu.be/x6Alv2Z347c?si=c_a2IkCBLB4AL4zo
A compilation in reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/musichaiku/comments/153qvqo/pharmacies_in_europe_and_their_rave_signs/
Hahaha I’ve seen some of those animations in their natural habitats
In my country, flashing lights for stores are outright banned, because it might trigger epilepsy seizures. Seeing a pharmacy out of all places using it feels very weird.
That’s what I thought too. But lo and behold
LMAO the part where it just starts displaying a bunch of pills flying at the screen
There’s a guy who bought 3 of this and set them as the lights for a rave at a venue, was pretty funny
Also now that I think of it, has anyone played bad apple on one of those?
Haven’t seen it done, but it’s just a matter of time
Never seen something like this and I wonder if it wouldn’t trigger epilepsy in some people…
that’s what you call a sales hook
Could you elaborate on “all over Europe”? We don’t have those in Sweden, it looks very very tacky.
In how many countries have you seen these?
I’ve seen them in Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, France (where this particular sign was filmed), Poland, Italy, Spain. That’s all I could remember from the trips I’ve been on in Europe.
NGL those countries seem like they would.
That’s fucking annoying to look at.
There are some that flash super bright, and super fast, in winter, when driving home in the dark, it feels like I’m on the verge of an epileptic fit, must be a nightmare for those who have to live with that shining in through their windows.
No one has hacked them to run porn on yet?
Doom?
Demosceners are paving the way: https://youtu.be/Ea7pn92W-Kg
I love it.
Also very common in South America.
They don’t exist in Germany.
Never seen in Switzerland too.
Because they are cool, that’s why.
Must be a continental thing. Here in noggieland we have a simple illuminated green cross.
Wait! That’s a new one for me, what’s noggieland?
Here’s the best video I’ve seen: https://youtu.be/xeN4A_Pr2SU
lmao never seen such peculiar animations over here, that’s crazy
The video is sped up quite a bit, but I’ve definitely seen them before in Portugal.
Damn, in what region? Never spotted anything like that!
Lisboa. I don’t remember where but it was around the city.
This brought me joy today, thanks for sharing
Some epilepsy patients might get a seizure.
Profit for the pharmacy /s
It’s not enough that they’re cross. They want you to be cross too!
I don’t know, I’ve definitely seen things like this in continental Europe but in the UK (here) the most they’ve displayed here is the time and temperature (which is often wrong but that’s another thing). That’s not a judgement, just as observation.
Yo! I’ve been wondering the same thing! I saw those all over Greece and they’re wild. Thought they were like cannabis shops or something lol.
