A clever way to draw attention to an off-the-beaten-path Japanese convenience store location. 

Visit any big city or town in Japan and you’re bound to find billboards and large advertisements everywhere, whether it be walking down the street, driving along the road, or inside the nearest train station.

While these billboards are primarily designed for advertising purposes, the ones that truly stand out tend to be those that surprise us with a little humour, like…

▼ …the host billboard that screamed “Earn your own money, you jackasses!“

Other surprising finds that’ve stopped us in our tracks in recent years include this driving school ad that twisted the lyrics of a popular ballad from a Makoto Shinkai anime movie to read: “The opposite train station platform, the smartphone generation, Even though this place they never look“.

And these punny signs in Okinawa’s Maehara district, which read, from left to right: “Let’s make fewer children who wait and more children who are great”; “Lots of alcohol (arukōru) ready here (arukō)”, “I grabbed some big turds”; “Let’s take care (itawarō) of the elderly. Karate breaks boards (itawarō).”

▼ Maehara is also home to this sign, which reads: “Pikachu is good and all, but this city is ‘becoming beautiful’ (bikachū).”

▼ Then there was this tiny sign located so high up a building we couldn’t even make out what it was saying.

While most of the signs above required some understanding of the Japanese language, the latest sign to make us laugh required no understanding of the language whatsoever.

▼ Plus, it came from a globally recognised company — 7-Eleven.

What was hidden beneath the question mark above?

▼ Behold, the grand reveal!

That’s right, this branch of 7-Eleven in Saitama Prefecture chose to advertise their store with a sign along the side of a road 711 metres (0.45 miles) from their location.

It’s a simple sign that not only catches the attention of drivers in an instant, but makes them smile at the same time, engendering such goodwill towards the brand that they’ll be tempted to pull in and give them some business in return for the laugh.

While it certainly made us smile, it also made us curious at the same time, as we wondered how close to the 7-Eleven this sign really was. We don’t let anything pass us by, least of all a sign with such a strong claim, so stay tuned for the results!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]