[imagesource: Trevor Cork]

There’s nothing like a good-humoured sign war to bring a small town closer together.

In a time where there is not much to laugh about, some wholesome sign banter between a couple of local businesses in Listowel in Ontario has really lifted everyone’s spirits.

It started with a sign from Speedy Glass asking Dairy Queen (DQ) next door if they wanted to have a sign war, and things just took off from there, with tons of local and neighbouring businesses joining in on the fun.

Trevor Cork, the owner of Speedy Glass, told the BBC that following his initial challenge to Dairy Queen things just blew up:

“It’s been so uplifting. There hasn’t been one negative comment. The reaction has been absolutely amazing,” Mr Cork said.

“We’re getting people stopping into my business just to say thank you for making them smile,” he added.

The Speedy Glass owner said that the sign wars were a “perfect distraction to what’s happening in the world around us right now” and that it had brought together the town with a population of just over 7 500 people.

“There’s businesses that compete against each other that are poking fun at each other and people are laughing together again and smiling at each other. It’s brought our community very close in the last seven days,” he said.

The local fire department got involved:

And DQ had no chill:

Then the Church chimed in:

And the Funeral home:

The auto and pet wash business added their two cents:

Someone even baked Cork a cake to say thanks, while others shared their gratitude on their Facebook pages.

“I’m loving this! Drove around town today before work to check out all the signs!!” wrote one person.

And another said: “This is awesome. Thanks for initiating it, Trevor. Such a positive vibe around town. Love it.”

Cork doesn’t believe the ‘war’ will be over any time soon, as more and more businesses jump on board.

This sort of thing isn’t unique to Canada.

In case you missed it, we had our own cheeky billboard battle on the M5 not so long ago…

[source:bbc]