Vintage Litterbug Sign

I rent a storage unit at Hold It Self Storage in Lorain. The facility is located on the site of the old Lorain Drive-in Theater, which made it a nostalgic choice for me. But the employees there are nice, and the price is right too. 

While giving me a tour of the grounds, the manager pointed out that their office is actually the old theater’s concession stand. The old original entrance structure where cars stopped to buy their movie tickets is still there as well.

(I first wrote about Hold It Self Storage back here in 2010.)

There is an old, faded ‘Don’t be a Litterbug’ sign on the premises, which adds to the retro ambience. The sign may or may not be a leftover from the theater days. 

As you can see, the litterbug isn’t the classic “tough guy” design (shown below) that was used in a national campaign, which I wrote about here.

But the litterbug on the sign at Hold It Self Storage is obviously an old style illustration, sort of a cousin to the vermin on the old Raid TV commercials. 

I took it into Photoshop and reversed it to get a better look. I like the spots on his nose.

Anyway, a website that offers retro-style signs must have liked this guy too, since a slightly modified version appears on one of their throwback products. You can see that they simplified the illustration a bit, slimming him down and eliminating some of the garbage strewn about. They also made ‘litterbug’ two words.