Written on March 26, 2026
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I was in town on Wednesday for some unrelated business, and wanted something to do while smoking my cigar. Cigar lounges are boring. You just sit there, and maybe talk to other people smoking cigars I guess, which is especially an unpleasant thing to do, because typically cigar smokers are rich and arrogant, and smoking cigars brings this out even more. I can’t stand rich people.
Anyway I had the idea of advertising my book The Gospel by Gen Z in person with a sign. It seemed fairly funny to me, so I went for it.
Design
My plan at first was to put the first couple sentences big, then follow up with several more sentences in smaller font, so that it wouldn’t be too wordy or distracting. But I thought that would be too distracting anyway, so I compromised and put about 4 sentences all big. If I ever do it again, it will just be two sentences.
I liked the idea I had to use blue as “bold” to make the Gen Z phrases stand out. But in retrospect, looking at it in this photo, I feel like it just adds to the busyness.
About halfway through, I realized people probably don’t realize it’s a book and that I’m advertising it.
About three quarters through the experiment, it occurred to me that I could just draw Amazon’s 4.6 stars on it, so I did, but I was worried it made it look even more busy.
But when adding the stars, I had to repeat the “on Amazon” part, to make it clear what the stars were for, which was redundant, since it was already up above, also. I wish I had thought of the stars earlier, and combined them.
Later, I realized I could just write tiny text on the bottom. Originally I was going to put “listening to Mad World by Gary Jules” but then realized I could write the fact that I wrote this book, and curious people might look closer at it simply because it’s small, and then realize that I wrote a book, and that the big words are part of a book.
If I ever do this sign again, I think I’ll have this:
“mary was a pick-me girl for god
and was simping for him in prayer…”get my book
The Gospel by Gen Z★★★★☆ 4.6
on Amazon50% off SALE!
It already feels just a little too busy. Design is hard.
Interactions
Many people glanced at the sign. Most looked away after about 2 seconds. They literally just “kept scrolling” lol.
One pair of teenage girls did a second take, stopped to read for 2 seconds, and one told the other “it’s Bible brain rot!” and they walked away laughing about it.
Very early on, it occurred to me that I had put the title and the “on Amazon” and the “sale” way too close to each other and to the text. It looks like one giant blob. I wish I would have spaced each of those out a lot more.
A few hours in, and I saw someone I’ve talked to a few times, and I asked if she heard of the book, and she went “you wrote that!?” and honestly it made my day. She was the second person I met in person who heard of my book, and the first one that was excited to find out that I wrote it. She told me she quotes it all the time! As an art student, I’m curious what she thinks of my stylistic choices.
One young woman read it for half a second, stopped, came up to me to read more, took her earphone out when I started talking, and as soon as I said it’s an ad for my book, her smile immediately disappeared and she walked away. That made me feel really sad, like I’m deceiving people.
A few acquaintances that I met while doing my survey signs had stopped by to see what I was doing. Because I met them while doing surveys, when I do other experiments, they seem a bit put off, and move on quickly. It always makes me feel a bit guilty for not doing a survey.
Preaching
One guy came up to me about halfway through, a delivery driver, and asked what all of this was. He was talking fairly slowly, and I wasn’t sure what he wanted for a while.
He kept asking odd questions, like “what do you say when people call Jesus the son of God?” and “what is the gospel to you?” and “why do we need Jesus for that?”
After a while, I thought he was just interested in Christianity, so I introduced myself, but he didn’t give me his name, and seemed odd. I was starting to think he was perhaps having a serious personal crisis.
After a little while, he revealed that he is in fact a Christian (in fact a stereotypical Protestant, though he didn’t call himself that), and he was testing me to see what my answer would be if someone asked what the gospel is.
He insisted that I got it wrong, and that I have a lot of learning to do, and he handed me a little Protestant booklet from his delivery truck.
I answered all his questions simply and honestly, but he would rather that I had read from his little Protestant script. He wanted me to be just as much a brainwashed clone as he was. I don’t think he knows the same Jesus I do.
I told him several times that I wasn’t trying to convert anyone, I was just advertising my book, which I wrote for fun and profit. But he was on a mission to get me to evangelize properly or whatever.
Anyway he left and handed me a little booklet that he insisted I should read, which was as typical, useless, and boring as you could possibly expect, in every conceivable way.
Results
I got about 3 sales while holding the sign for a few hours, and 1 more sale later that day (6 total for March 25th), 2 more this morning, and 2 more this afternoon.
It’s not entirely clear just how many of those sales came from my ad. There certainly seems to be a spike, where it doubled (from 3 to 6), so I think it’s safe to say that the $7 profit from those 3 sales probably came from doing this sign. The poster cost $11, so it’s a net loss of only $4.
On a related note, sales of my book are down, so I am cutting costs. Comments have been disabled, and the email address is no longer functional.
If you want to support me doing these surveys, feel free to Venmo or Cashapp me at ChicagoSignGuy. All proceeds will go toward posterboards and cigars.