Your 5 basic types of funny sidewalk chalkboard signs
Those cute sidewalk chalkboard signs are everywhere these days. Personally, I’m a huge fan of these chalkboard signs. Â If a restaurant has one, I’m more likely to check it out. Who doesn’t love a personal touch in place of a boring, standard sign or menu?
After you see enough of these, you start to notice a pattern. Well, to be frank, we think about signs a lot. I thought I would share our expert findings: the five main types of funny sidewalk chalkboard signs.
1. The superhero/pop culture reference cafe sign
Have you seen your favorite superheros or cartoon characters on cafe signs like these? These nostalgic nods to your childhood lure you in so well that you have to get something no matter what the restaurant’s health rating is.
Even though winter’s coming soon to New York (shivers!), check out this cool Game of Thrones-themed Starbucks sidewalk chalkboard sign:
The international mass market coffee business is a lot like Game of Thrones.  Starbucks is clearly sitting atop the iron throne as the undisputed and ruthless tyrant of the global coffee chain industry.  But now many of its competitors from kingdoms all across the world want to claim the throne for themselves?  Whether its Pete’s Coffee, McDonald’s McCafé, Panera or Caribou Coffee, it’s only a matter of time before Starbucks and its barbarian army of ingenious marketers and hipster baristas are slain and dethroned.
What I do know for sure is that this final battle will most certainly involve white walkers and dragons. But who will have the most coffee shops on any given block in ten years? Who knows. That’s why its called the Game of Thrones.
2. The chalkboard sign that incorporates social media
Plenty of chalkboard signs these days incorporate social media as marketing tools to persuade people to eat at their establishments or to subsidize their meals in some way (with a like, a tweet, a check-in or maybe even a +1). Sometimes they’re also used to dissuade people from doing awfully stupid things like uploading pictures of their food on Instagram. Ladies: nobody cares.
3. That chalkboard bar sign that wants you to be the alcoholic you can be
I’ve always joked with college friends that if things are going well, you should have a drink to celebrate. And if you’re having a bad day, you should have a drink to blow off some steam. The guys who wrote that sign definitely understand me.
4. The sign that wants to get you buzzed on caffeine and fails
All that pink text looks so alone on a black, barren chalkboard. Sad Face. Is this at least a little bit funny? I suppose, but if these guys were serious, they would at least try to depict the euphoria that their coffee delivers to tired, cranky customers. This shows no effort. SMH.
5. The hipster-deriding coffee shop sign
I personally find it strange that a coffee shop would deliberately alienate a substantial chunk of its customer base. Everyone knows that without hipsters, Starbucks stock would lose over 23.5% of its value. Hipsters just can’t put a good cup of coffee down.  Ergo, burned tongues.