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why do pharmacies have these signs with whacky animations? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've seen these all over Europe. Some have simple images of the cross flashing, some have windows screensaver esque animations, and some have 3d renders of various things rotating in all sorts of ways. Why is that? Wouldn't a simple green cross be enough to get the point across, or do they need to be overly verbose? Here's the full video instead of a gif

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (13 children)

Ok, so this might be an americanism, but the green cross says "cannabis dispensary" to me. At least around me, the medical marijuana industry is somewhat separated from the medical industry, and dispensaries are entirely different establishments from pharmacies. Pharmacies (and other medical establishments) use different symbols. If they were to use a cross to indicate a medical establishment, the red cross would be recognizable as a generalized symbol, but apparently it's heavily protected by the Red Cross.

But that's just my context, so I don't have much of an answer beyond "this is what it means 'round these parts"

Edit: added info from below

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The red cross symbol is actually not a generalized symbol and use of it is heavily controlled by the American Red Cross non-profit. There is a history of lawsuits against video games for using the red cross on medkits without permission. If a pharmacy in the US uses it, they no doubt had to seek approval.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago

There's a "removed Geneva convention violation" patch note in an early update of Stardew Valley for exactly this reason.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Ahh, that's genuinely interesting, thanks!

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