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
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 heheHere 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.
I’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.
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
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?
It’s not enough that they’re cross. They want you to be cross too!
Can’t really contribute as in Germany most pharmacy signs are pretty static and look kind of like this: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/06/30/20/59/pharmacy-380780_640.jpg
But I also wonder why there’s so many pharmacies in France. In almost any city I’ve been to it’s hard to not have a green flashing cross in sight.
The French are huge fans of medicine.
But I also wonder why there’s so many pharmacies in France. In almost any city I’ve been to it’s hard to not have a green flashing cross in sight.
French pharmacies cannot open where they want, there is a limit in how many pharmacy a city can have, on the flip coin, it means that they are relatively evenly spread out across the country, and that even in the so called empty diagonal you`ll find a pharmacy.
Physician do not have this restriction, so many of them go to either Paris or the French riviera, while in rural area in the Northern half, you struggle to find a doctor.
I’m pretty sure that’s just kind of a tradition, I don’t remember exactly tho
I don’t think we have those in the US at all.
Anyways it’s probably like that because it’s eye-catching. Eg it’s an ad
Depends where you’re at in the US. In oregon this symbol is used for cannabis dispensaries, meaning it is extremely common.
Might just be a UK tbh, never seen this before
It’s a mainland Europe thing.
I can confirm that they are in the Czech Republic and Italy
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.
No one has hacked them to run porn on yet?
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I love it.
Doom?
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.
Also very common in South America.
They don’t exist in Germany.
Never seen in Switzerland too.
Because they are cool, that’s why.
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.
