Summery Judgments

Summer begins tomorrow, June 21, everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere except San Francisco.

Now, I’m aware that Mark Twain didn’t say that the coldest winter he ever spent was a San Francisco summer. But that doesn’t make the statement counterfactual, as advertisers enjoy reminding us.

Here, for example, is a Nest thermostat billboard near 5th and Harrison streets, San Francisco.

 

“It’s summer in SF. Time to save on heating.”

In fact, the temperature was a sizzling 78°F at noon on Wednesday, when I took the photo. Our legendary June Gloom has not been much in evidence so far.

The fog will almost certainly return in time to obscure the July 4 fireworks, though.

 

 

Google Shopping Express newspaper ad: “SF Summer Delivered.” Note final item on shopping list.

 

Previously in Cold Summer advertising:

• McDonald’s “Más frío que un verano en SF.” (2011)
• North Lake Tahoe Visitors’ Bureaus’ “Winter, Spring, Winter, Fall.” (2013)

Comments

[Jjochwat]

Ah, summer in San Francisco. I recall the gaiety and hypothermia of the 4th of July, standing at the top of UCSF and listening to the fireworks thudding invisibly in the fog.

[CGHill]

World-class post title, by the way.

[Pink]

One of my Facebook friends posted this with the same billboard,

"Obviously this company has never been to San Francisco during the Summer
It should be
"Its Summer in SF
Time to Turn up the heat""

I see the billboard advert as having to remind me its summer; to turn my thermostat down from 80, to 72 in fact and save some money (even though its colder than...). And do it all thru my phone.

How would you translate this billboard? How did she confuse it?

[Nancy Friedman]

@Pink: I read it as "It's summer in San Francisco--you'll need to turn on the heat, but Nest can help you save on heating bills because it's a 'smart' thermostat."