One of the weirdest things that I have encountered in the big apple is a sign that I read while walking casually down the street.  It may not be the weirdest thing ever but it was, in many ways, both intriguing and awkward. I was walking home from school, and being the nosy person that I am, looked at a sign on the trash can on the corner of a street. It said “See! You just proved that trash can signs work. Now buy one.” My immediate reaction was to laugh, because I would never expect an advertisement for an advertisement. As I walked, all of this boggled my mind - it was in so many ways confusing, but in some ways it made sense, and in many ways it was weird.

As I began to walk more, all of these thoughts started organizing themselves in my brain and I was able to grasp entirely what I just saw. I wondered if someone actually paid to put that advertisement there, what its purpose was, and if there was actually a company that made those ads. It didn’t make sense to me that someone would put an ad about an advertisement…it just didn’t make any sense. Why not just wait for someone to buy the space? But then again (I said to myself), how many people are going to look at a trash can and say, now that’s good retail space - without some motivation…and that’s the exact purpose this sign illustrated. What I was thinking now is exactly what the people who put that sign up wanted me to think. Then the question began to hit me, how many others have seen that sign and thought the same thing as me? The next day someone had put an advertisement on the trash can.

William Ramirez is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program