Code of Conduct for Dancing Sign Holders

Red light flashes on Westshore and Kennedy. I lay my head down almost to the steering wheel because I am late to a meeting at the South Tampa Shapes Total Fitness. I look up rolling my eyes in annoyance purely at my own poor time management skills for the day. Scanning the other cars to my right, I hoped to notice how annoyed other people are that they missed the light, and I see a pickle.

Not a dill pickle, not a sweet pickle on your hamburgers, it is a giant stuffed pickle mascot. This pickle has a young gentleman in this suit with a sign. It says - and I do not quote - come to my deli. Now, any other times, a mascot would stand out side the business and just hold the sign up in disbelief that his life has come to this. (I have imagined the conversation that I might have with my staff convincing them to wear a pickle suit and it doesn't go over so well.) It is not a job to take lightly. It is abnormally hot, you are standing on a major intersection in Tampa, and by the way,your told to stand there with a smile.

To my surprise this pickle was dancing. This pickle was an air guitar master. This pickle had glasses and looked cool. This pickle had made me smile. I literally went out of my way some days to travel down westshore  to give my passengers and I a giggle. My colleagues and I agree that this pickle convinced us that his company was not just any normal deli. This deli had style and because of this pickle, we went out of our way to visit there establishment. That was 8 months ago. Yesterday, I was traveling down dale mabry to south tampa to my softball game and I was reminded of this dancing pickle. I stopped at the Fletcher Ave red light and again I look to the left and find a young man, no costume with a banner in his hand. His dancing skills were not the same, which is fine, everyone has their own style. His air guitar with the banner did not even show the business name. I thought, because he had two friends sitting on the stone wall behind him watching him that it might be a prank. Several times, he left the banner on the ground to dance in what i presumed was a techno modern version of the robot. I am by no means rejecting his dancing. I am just wondering if there should be a code of conduct for these business mascots dancing and yelling at us as we drive by.

Today, I think if I didn't have a job and a pickle costume was my only means of income, bring on the pickle costume, but with no banner, no uniform I am unsure of what your advertising. My question is does it help your business if your "mascot" does not have a code of conduct?