A McDonald's in a small town made a very, very smart move. Here's how other companies have responded

A McDonald's in Marshfield, Missouri has created millions of dollars in free advertising for itself and other local businesses by starting a sign war with a nearby Dairy Queen. Other retailers quickly joined us. The local chamber of commerce began posting the panels on their Facebook page, and it all went viral, garnering - so far - more than 19 million views on social media.

That's pretty impressive considering the cost of the effort was $0 and the population of Marshfield is around 7,500. It's a lesson in how a little creativity and an emphasis on fun can make a huge difference to a business. It's a mindset you can use to raise the profile of your own business, no matter how small.

It all started quite simply with Marshfield McDonald's statement on its sign:

HEY DQ! YOU WANT TO HAVE A SIGN WAR

Dairy Queen fired back:

WE WLD BUT WERE 2 BUSY MAKING ICE CREAM

This was a not-so-subtle reference to McDonald's ongoing problems with its ice cream machines which have been known to break down so often that someone created the McBroken website to inform customers of the machines. in their region that work and don't work. .

McDonald's replied:

IT'S CUTE, OUR ICE CREAM MAKES ITSELF

What DQ replied to:

YOU MEAN IT ACTUALLY WORKS SHOCKER

The sign war was on. And he was about to take it up a notch.

McDonald's:

WHAT IS A DAIRY QUEEN TIGHTSA DAIRY QUEEN

WHY DINE IN A CLOWN WHEN YOU CAN W A QUEEN

Many local small businesses took notice and happily rushed in. A bank placed this sign on the sidewalk in front of its entrance:

Roses are redPurples are blueWe also want to participate in the war of signs...

A Mexican restaurant posted this:

MIDDLE SIGN NACHO

PS-WE HAVE FRIED ICE CREAM

Pretty soon, just about every store and restaurant in Marshfield put up a sign with some sort of joke, including Domino's Pizza and Wendy's. The Chamber of Commerce posted them all on its Facebook page, and soon the sign war caught the attention of national media, as well as many social media outlets.

The magic is that all of these companies, starting with the Marshfield McDonald's franchise, could see the potential of a mundane and often underutilized resource, the humble retail sign, to surprise and inspire the interest of customers. Of course, the purpose of the sign is to grab customers' attention and get them to enter your store, but the sign war was a chance to entertain them in a personalized way that had nothing to do with it. see with limited time special offers.

Other companies have seen this kind of potential in the past. You probably couldn't name a single brand of shaving cream that was around in the 1920s that is gone today. Except, maybe, one: Burma-Shave, which adorned every highway in America with its rhyming billboards from 1925 to 1966.

LOTS OF MISTAKE ON BRAKEBURMA-SHAVE'S HORNINSTEAD

These billboards have disappeared from the highways, but not from our collective memory...