The tipping point

In recent weeks, I walked across a foot bridge spanning the Iowa River. Fastened to the railing in the center of the bridge is a small sign that reads:

The last death from jumping or diving of this bridge was June 15, 1995.

This led to two streams of thought. Most immediately, I was struck by the fragility of life. It is difficult to imagine death in such a peaceful and ordinary setting. Granted, jumping off a bridge is not a common day-to-day event. But, for me, simply walking to and from lunch, the bridge seemed quite ordinary and the water, 10-12 feet away, did not seem threatening in the least.

After 3-5 seconds, my second stream of thought focused upon the date in the warning. I wondered at what point the date would lose its effectiveness as a deterrent or, taken to a perverse extreme, even serve as comfort? 1995 doesn't seem so long ago but what if, for example, the sign said:

The last death from jumping or diving of this bridge was April 23, 1913.

Could someone look at that and think, "Hey! That's not so bad. I've got pretty good odds here!"

Admittedly, this is in poor taste, but that's just where my mind took me. This is an inverted more twisted version of a similar proposition I've considered in the past.

Flo's Clam Shack in Portsmouth, Rhode Island has been "...serving customers since 1936." Perhaps more impressively, the business has survived four hurricanes, but the point is that we can feel good they've been around since '36. Similarly, the Cincinnati Reds date to 1869 and what would become The University of Cambridge, astonishingly, was first organized in 1209.

But... How do we feel about the Bark Market "Serving Portland's Cats and Dogs Since 2005" or DivePro Info "Serving the Scuba Community Since 2004" ?

Here again, at what point does (or should) the date cease to become a point of pride and instead just be lame or even a turn off?

I propose a rule-of-thumb where, if you own underwear older than a date used in this fashion, it can be considered a poor marketing effort. However, it could also simply mean that you need new underwear (see Cambridge.)

One more thing. Perhaps The Bark Market's history is more impressive than it seems at first; you simply need to make a conversion to Dog Years. Sure, Fido may have only been a customer for two years, but that seems like TWENTY to him! And if they sell June Beetles and June Beetle related products...