Signs and messages from around the world.
I don't know the whole story of what this public sign is assuming but i think the illustrations second scenario is missing the unhappiness of the splatter residing exclusively on you instead of the floor.
Otto Neurath-ic: from money-less societies to the reduction of language into a set of signs depicting direct experiences. The Marxist inspiration for reducing the individual's status for bettering mankind evolved into Otto Neurath's reductionist language of signs. Commonly regulated by national transportation departments; these functionally universal symbols of common experiences can sometimes be as idiosyncratic as the cultures they serve. To tie this bit of cheap humor to our professional world: I would claim that a great piece of design and better yet a brand strives to achieve this minimalist insight and direct experience with a consumer. The key is to hocus, pocus, focus. Though exaggerated claims and misguided attempts at being everything to everyone have a like-able ambitious quality they do nothing to create a unique selling position. Successful brands seem to stay on message better than the competition. For purity of message you can often look back into a companies mantra, Coca Cola = Enjoy, HP = Invent, Milk = Got milk, Apple=Think...:), Nike=Just do it. This doesn't mean a monolithic rubber stamp of a logo and copy signature should accompany every store handle and shopping bag. However this simple honest spirit should permeate through all of the companies consumer and employee touch points lest we end up leaving with bag of composting messages. eeeuuww
