Each morning I walk Archee McLeash passed JFK University’s lovely creekside campus. Recently, they installed new No Smoking signs. The signs look like this:

Please

That’s the sign: The word please with a no smoking graphic.

Why did they include please on the sign? Please implies a request, that a person can make a choice to comply, or not.  However, here in California, it’s against the law to smoke within 20 feet of a public building. There’s no choice. I’d rather see a sign that says, flat out, Don’t smoke here.

(Frankly, given the number of cigarette butts within 20 feet of this building, they not only need to remove the Please, they need to add Don’t Litter.)

There’s a pretty landscaped pond along the front of the JFK building. The signs along the gurgling creek that feeds the pond says:

DANGER

Do not cross the creek

I like this sign! They didn’t obscure the message with any fluffy “magic” words. Do not cross the creek, we mean it. Sure, you could argue that the word DANGER allows the reader to make a choice based on her own best interest, I’ll choose to abide by the sign because I don’t want break an ankle, rather than just obey the sign because the property owners said so.

But there isn’t anything impolite about this sign. There isn’t any ambiguity either.

Before you use please in your communications, consider if it is truly needed. Being “polite” can undermine your message.