Emotionally intelligent signage: Who wants to help?
Emotionally intelligent signage won’t change the world in an end-world-hunger/solve-the-climate-crisis/bring-genocidal-dictators-to-justice sort way. But I do think it can make people’s lives a little bit better.
And since we’ve turned this site into something of a clearinghouse for this idea, folks have started to ask for (your) help. Case in point: Lesley, on behalf of an Ontario university, writes:
“I would love to know if you or any of your readers have come across any emotionally intelligent signs re No Smoking.
[The] traditional NO SMOKING signs just outside doorways have not been effective. We have had a discussion about the opportunity to use an emotionally intelligent signs as being much more effective for this audience and demographic, and we didnāt want to reinvent the wheel if clever signs are already in use.”
Over to you, readers. Can you help, Lesley? Have you seen an effective and emotionally intelligent NO SMOKING sign recently? Got any ideas for how to craft one that uses empathy to get people to refrain from lighting up?
Post your answers and links in the Comments sections below. I’ll re-post the best ones.
Not sure empathy is the right note for this one given that it’s a university. If it were a school for children or something, yes.
Instead, I think a bit of derision is in order. The social pressures of being told, “Don’t be an ass,” would seem most likely to work in a college environment. Not literally that message, of course, but along those lines.
I’ve seen “Lungs at Work” on more than one occasion.
This might be too harsh, but at least it makes people think:
“No Cancer Sticks Please”
Even smokers need empathy though..
“Quit Smoking. Start Here.”
Smoking allowed only if it lets the magic genie out of the bottle.
Here’s a link to some (fairly) funny NO SMOKING signs. I’d be curious to hear if they’re effective.
http://www.smokingsigns.com/Smoking-Signs/Humorous-No-Smoking-Signs.aspx
Emotionally intelligent communication is about understanding the person you are speaking to.
I smoke.
And I remember why I started: people telling me not to smoke.
And occasionally I like to to smoke because I enjoy it. Do I smoke on a school bus? In public places? In bed? In the doctorĀ“s office? No.
The clicking and the clucking and the easy āwhat about the children?ā hectoring (breathing hot smoke into your lungs is obviously not good for you) are the last thing a smoker wants to hear.
This would work for me.
SMOKE!
JUST NOT HERE!
I personally love “If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate measures.”
The reason “No Smoking” signs don’t really matter anymore is they have become mental white noise. Our brains filter out messages that we have already seen, and we’ve all seen this message a thousand times.
My attention was grabbed recently by a sign on a piano that read “Place not a thing upon me.” The unique wording forced my mind to actually read and understand the message.
With that in mind I second Jason Hunter’s “just not here” suggestion and offer this: SMOKE ELSEWHERE or PLEASE, SMOKE ELSEWHERE
Since when “Do not” is placed in front of a verb, the human brain only accepts the verb – I’m not sure what would work, though I love the question.
Here in Seattle we legislated it – smoking is not allowed in any public places except outside. This works well, except the sidewalks are covered with butts.
My “NO SMOKING” sign is posted right over the stove in my kitchen and it seems to work quite well! : )
As a pipe and cigar smoker and one that started later in life, I get frustrated at everyone tell me “No Smoking” everywhere I turn. I just learned that New Delhi (A city I travel to a lot) is now completely no smoking! How are they going to pull this off? Not with the traditional “No Smoking” signage for sure.
I think I really resonate with Jason’s comment and his emotionally intelligent communication approach. Very astute and it works for me. I would not be offended and it would instill in me a desire to respect the person posting the signage.
How about a bit of reverse psychology, something like Smoke…Then Die or Smoke Here Today Gone Tomorrow.
“Please, fill the air with smoke elsewhere.”
or even better:
“I like to breath fresh (clean) air, how about you? Please smoke elsewhere.”
‘No Smoking’ is not bad signage actually, except that it is too general and as pointed out, often ignored. More clear would be ‘This is a No Smoking Zone’, and possibly in small print the zone should be defined and the nearest legal smoking areas identified for those needing those services.
More effective and psychologically motivating would be ‘No Smoking Enforcement Zone’ with the possible fine or penalty for smoking written in fine print and again the nearest legal smoking area identified. The penalty could include both legal and medical consequences.
No smoking here
no ifs, ands, or butts….
Feel free to smoke, just not here.
“Stop them from whining — please don’t smoke here.”
“Silence the complainers — please smoke elsewhere.”
Much of what I’ve seen here is meant to punish smokers. That isn’t a useful approach for changing anyone’s behavior in a positive way, but it’s great for encouraging defiant behaviors. If threats or fines or shaming worked there would be no smokers.
No smoking: you deserve it
a bit of a play on words. they can take it as a positive “you, and your body, deserve to not smoke” or the seasoned smokers will likely read it as a preachy “you deserve what you get”. Either way – it speaks to a broad group in a pretty direct fashion.
I, too, agree with Jason (although I am an ex-smoker, it was not hectoring that got me there).
I would like some kind of “smoking permitted in [nearest legal place]”, which in the case of Manitoba would be outside. Maybe offer a few tuques and mitts given that people here smoke outside in -40C.
My favorite:
Smoke-free moments available here –
please share them.
Thank you for sending in your suggestions. You all have great ideas. I thought I should offer some clarification. No smoking is allowed indoors, so this is outside signage we are looking for. It is not illegal to smoke outdoors, so this is not enforceable. The request for signage came from some students complaining about other students smoking right outside the dorm doors and in front of main buildings. We want to encourage students to smoke at a specified, yet to be determined distance, and yes, perhaps allocating specific areas outdoors. But we still want fun signage at the doors to drive home the point.
This is a tough one because let’s not forget that because smoking is an addiction, even smokers don’t want to be smoking.
I think the best sort of ways to move the smokers away from the doorway area would be to specifically ask them to “take 15 steps to the left” or “if you can read this sign, smoke a little further away please”.
suggesting an alternative to reach a compromise should help both sides be a little happier
Oh, that makes sense. How about just putting receptacles, to put out their butts, far away from the dorm windows. And then a sign which states that anyone dropping (littering) their butts on the grounds will have to pay a fine?
Don’t let your health go up in smoke.
Know smoking?
Know cancer.
No smoking;
No cancer.
Change the whole dynamic.
“Please substitute the urge with the Free gum/ mints in the lobby.
Replenish when you have a chance.
See you around in 2050. Thanks.”
This area is reserved for
ILLEGAL DRUG USE ONLY!!!
Please take all tobacco products,
alcoholic and caffeinated beverages,
chocolate, high fructose corn syrup,
doughnuts and salty snacks
to the assigned consumption areas.
Note: This area is under
24-hour video surveillance.
Distraction: Put up a very large board, one which can be drawn upon and have a sign saying,Instead of lighting up create up-on this board, all art accepted.
Lesley,
You wrote that you were looking for something fun or clever but Dan tossed in the empathy card on this one. And if you need to include empathy for the smokers in the solution then the problem is tougher to solve because there winds up being a left brain, right brain thing going on. (Just so you know, I am a non-smoking right-brain guy.)
When empathy to the smokers must be included in the solution this thing moves from being an emotional signage problem to being an empathetic physical-space design problem that involves a charged emotional issue and the design problem gets dicey.
By posting any form of a NO SMOKING sign you are choosing to be empathetic to the non-smokers; you are choosing sides. In this case, the signs themselves will work like left-brain approved abstract symbols that are empathetic only to the non-smokers. But the posting of the signs is a part of a societal pattern that simultaneously expresses something close to the opposite of empathy to the right brain of the smokers. So you would need to be empathetically pre-emptive in regards to the smokers or they could perceive the signage as being empathetically hollow, callous and insensitive. The distance for the smokers cannot be a āyet to be determined distanceā and āperhaps allocating specific areas outdoorsā for them just wonāt do it up there in the great white north!
The problem involves the use of public places and there are theoretically possible smoker-empathetic solutions. But smokers are like the lepers of modern society and being empathetic towards them runs counter to the way society is now treating them.
The non-smoking students are asking you to move the leper colony and pleasantly worded āNo Leper Loiteringā signs will work for some but not all.
Steve G
ATTENTION: HIGHLY TRAFFICKED AREA
Please smoke elsewhere or don’t exhale
ATTENTION: It is illegal to smoke here while committing a crime. Otherwise it is merely harmful to non-smokers passing through.
SMOKE-FREE ZONE…
…When considerate people are present.
Thank you Dan and your readers for many helpful suggestions that I will take to our Smoke Free Committee that is struggling with ‘smoking at the front door’ in a psychiatric/addictions hospital that has been smoke free on the entire 55 acre property for nineteen months.
Hey Patrick. Let me see what I can brainstorm off of your ideas?
ATTENTIION: FREE SMOKE ZONE NEARBY!
Please do your smoking there and donate your used smoke to the packless.
FAIRNESS ZONE
Nonsmokers share the same smoke-free air in this smoke-free zone.
Smokers can share the same smoke-filled air in the nearby smoking zone.
SMOKING GREEN ZONE NEARBY!
Reduce your carbon mouthprint. Share your used smoke with other smokers in the nearby smoking recycling zone. Please donāt waste your spent smoke on all of the nonsmokers in this area.
WARNING TO SMOKERS!
This area is infested with devout non-smokers. They congregate in doorways; they sermonize; hand out anti-smoking pamphlets and pester smokers so much that it totally ruins the peaceful smoking experience. You might find it more pleasant to light up over in the smoking area.
How’s this for a positive and sexy command?
“SUCK FACE, NOT BUTTS.”
I quit.
Most of your readers seem to be approaching the problem as one to be solved by wit, ie, the ever-more-pundit approach. As a former smoker (an ex-smoker, but never again a non-smoker), might I suggest the solution lacks not erudition, but, as Lesley points out, location: “…yet to be determined distance…” How about a positive, rather than negative, solution? Yes. Smoke. Here. Determine that location. Then specify it. Rather than the negative, over-looked, not to mention poorly designed “no smoking” Helvetica orange-red/black combo. Expecting addicts to come up with a soln for you is unreasonable. Lower your expectations.
Kathryn,
You could take that one to something more evenly confrontational.
Hey buttface! This nonsmoking area is for the buttless!!
Jana,
Most of the situation isnāt caused by poor signage design but better signs might help a bit. When you bring in the idea of a location for the smokers everything gets messy. To put it into a metaphorical Pink-think: Johnny Bunko meets Godzilla within a whole new mind.
There is a public place where smokers are legally allowed to smoke but the nonsmokers want the smokers to move. The people in charge post signs that only empathize with the nonsmokers and the signs donāt work. So the nonsmoker-supporting people in charge formulate a plan to find better signs that will help the nonsmokers because everybody knows that smoking is a weakness. And if the smokers only had the talents of the nonsmokers to avoid or overcome addiction there wouldnāt be a problem. But those weak willed smokers are such a persistent lot when it comes to lighting up.
So the āself-centeredā group with the nonsmoking ātalentsā has a āplanā to deal with the āpersistentā smokers and their āweaknessā but the signs donāt seem to leave the proper āimprintā in the smoker mind. So there must be some sort of āmistakeā; something must be wrong with the smokers?
Meanwhile, Godzilla lurks. For smokers and nonsmokers the issue is a monster with a high emotional charge. And this Godzilla must live within a whole new mind. The smokers need a location but the physical ādesignā of the location needs to be āempatheticā to smokers in a āmeaningfulā way. And then the āplayfulā signage can work in āsymphonicā harmony within the smoker āstoryā.
But the āsolutionsā to the problem are, in general, being orchestrated by nonsmokers and their supporters within a society that treats smokers like lepers. And the nonsmoking group doesnāt want to be remembered as being the group that helped smokers smoke.
Get your butts out of here!
Smoking Zone
I haven’t come up with the right wording yet, but I’d like to somehow capture the humor from the old “We don’t swim in your toilet; please don’t pee in our pool.” Something that parallels having smoke blown on you to having someone spray you with ammonia. Maybe that’s a little harsh…
Another angle: a sign that lists the major toxins emitted from second-hand smoke with a prohibited icon over it.
Elizabeth,
I think that anything along those lines is going to be harsh no matter what, but hereās a go at it:
We donāt ask you to sniff our butts; please donāt ask us to sniff yours.
Combine that with the prohibited icon over a picture of some butt-sniffing dogs that are puffing away on cigarettes. There might be a need for a nonsmoking dog in the picture; probably sitting with a sad look or coughingā¦something like that. Or maybe, since smokers and nonsmokers tend to battle like cats and dogs, include a nonsmoking disapproving cat in the picture.
Your āmajor toxinsā idea is a little trickier; lots of chemical names that wonāt be easily recognized. You could have a picture of smokers happily puffing away and blowing smoke rings shaped like toilets and toilet seats; the toxins could be written on the toilet seat smoke rings. One of the smoke rings could be hanging around the neck of a sad nonsmoker in distress.
Those things are empathetic to the nonsmokers but also treat the smokers like lepers so Iām not sure how they would work out in this situation. Might work better than the typical signage; might not.
Perhaps thereās another way to handle this situation. The nonsmokers have their sign posted; maybe the smokers should be allowed to put up another sort of emotionally intelligent sign. I would recommend something far more right-brain; the big pictureā¦drawn in words using rhythm and pattern. Something a bit moreā¦poeticā¦
Smokers:
We ask you, please, to move ā¦ ask with polite and tender grace.
What you doā¦we do not approve, so find your kind some other place.
There was a timeā¦cigars were passedā¦ on the day that you were born.
But we are so much wiser nowā¦ we treat what you do with scorn.
Tolerance of youā¦cannot be tolerated.
The risk of what you doā¦cannot be overstated.
In years gone byā¦the rooms insideā¦were more evenly divided.
It was a timeā¦when you could chooseā¦the nonsmoking or smoking sided.
But that was not enoughā¦we must avoid your every puff.
So we forced you out the doorā¦and now we ask you to moveā¦
once moreā¦
Twitter and tweet, twitter and tweet.
No hourās complete ātil we twitter and tweet.
We are not like you, we have no addiction.
We might have a preferenceā¦or predilection.
What do you mean our willpower is fiction?
Our willpower is strong, smokers please move along.
We must respect the health of all; we all must breathe the air.
Wellā¦ yes, we drive an S.U.V., no contradiction there.
Noā¦the drive-thru for our caffeine fix is not just like your cancer sticks!
And burning up that gasolineā¦thatās just a part of our morning scene.
Twitter and tweet, twitter and tweet.
No hourās complete ātil we twitter and tweet.
Noā¦we are not like you, thatās not an addiction!
It is simply our preferenceā¦ our predilection.
Weāre not hypocriticalā¦thereās no contradiction.
Our willpowerās strongā¦smokers must move along!
Yesā¦we fill the air with our mindless chatterā¦talking on cell phones.
Why should that matter? Respect for all? Waitā¦ Iāve got a call.
Well just close your ears if you donāt want to hear!
We do not comprehend; why your habit you wonāt end?
Perhaps itās that the laws are too lax? ā¦
Of course the Stateāsā¦addicted toā¦ the revenueā¦
itās collecting from the smoking tax.
Over-eating, gambling, spending, the addiction list is never-ending.
Clinging to the back like monkeys of news and sports and junk food junkies.
āCanāt go without it; not one day!ā Gee, thatās just what the addicts say?
Okayā¦
We might be like you, thereās lots of addictions
They could be just preferencesā¦ or predilections.
Youāre not so atypical ā¦thereās no legal restrictions.
We could be wrongā¦and you might belongā¦
Smokers:
When they ask you, please, to move. Not just on signs, but to your face.
When you know they donāt approve, then all could seek amazing grace.
Ask if they dream of daysā¦when respect is sharedā¦not single-sided.
A time when toleranceā¦is something fairā¦something evenly divided.
Tolerance thatās shared by twoā¦it should not be underrated.
What becomes of what we doā¦cannot be overstated.
In the years to comeā¦the things we chooseā¦can spread so far and wide.
And who should win, if none or all should loseā¦itās what we can all decide.
So is respect just fluff? ā Do we allā¦share enough?
Each moment is a doorā¦
that all, as well as oneā¦
can exploreā¦
We are all equals, we have some addictions.
We might call it preferences or predilections
Maybe itās time we lived by our convictions
If our willpower is strong, we can all get along
Twitter and tweet, choosing bitter or sweet.
When we all share respect then our day is complete.
Diane,
I agree that bringing in empathy to the smokers makes things tricky, but itās because society doesnāt want to empathize with smokers; society wants to pass ācaringā judgment on their behavior.
With caring, you are feeling concerned or interested in the welfare of others and you make a judgment call based upon your own value system. Society wants to restrict or prevent the smokersā behavior for the welfare of the smokers (and the welfare of the nonsmokers) and that involves a judgment call based upon the nonsmoker value system. That is not empathy.
With empathy, you are imagining being in somebody elseās shoes; trying to feel what they feel; sharing their emotions and thoughts, and any judgment call is made with the values of the person who you are trying to empathize with.
Most nonsmokers seem to come at smoker empathy with a very linear, one-dimensional, left-brain version of empathy, but true empathy is a right-brain thing. Itās a big picture thing.
Imagine what it would feel like to be a smoker in modern society. Your kind has been kicked out of buildings. Now you and your kind all huddle near the entrances during inclement weather, but thatās not good enough for the nonsmoker elite who rule. Despite the fact that it is perfectly legal for the smokers to gather there, just a few complaints from members of the nonsmoker elite and thenā¦
āMove them,ā comes the shouts of the ruling class, āwe must restrict and prevent their self-destructive behavior! It is for their own good and the good of all!ā
Modern society is L-directed and doesnāt want to be truly empathetic to smokers. The smokers who cannot be converted or ācuredā are being forced to move to more and more remote leper colonies.
Smoking Kills
Die Elsewhere