Cops Share Photo of Little Boy Selling 'Ice Cold Beer' After Receiving Multiple Phone Calls
It’s summer. Most kids are nestled inside with a book or staring glazed-eyed at an endless stream of images on a screen. The more adventurous might be outside poking about or spending afternoons at the pool or park.
The most enterprising of all are getting a leg up on life and business and trying their hands at marketing. Lemonade stands are a staple of the season, even if certain areas now require permits.
While sometimes the cups are sticky and the lemonade is not quite ice-cold, it’s a lovely thing to encourage these attempts at business. There’s a lot for a kid to learn, from interacting with potential customers to handling money to learning about supply and demand.
But what separates one lemonade stand from the next? Sometimes they can all seem to blend together — which is where the lesson in advertising comes in.
One little boy from Brigham City, Utah, has found a sure-fire method to stop people in their tracks and make them pay attention.
In fact, he’s almost gotten too much attention, but it didn’t seem to be causing him any problems — until the police got involved.
Neighbors stopped and stared when they saw the sign the young man was hoisting aloft: “Ice Cold Beer,” the sign said in big, bold, black letters. Seth, the 11-year-old boy, had crafted this sign very carefully, and a closer look reveals crucial fine print over the word “beer.”
One little four-letter word changed the sign completely. Written in small letters is the word “Root” — instantly changing this business from questionable to undeniably clever.
Some neighbors were so incensed by the sign that they didn’t take the time to read the fine print, dialing into the local police station instead of sussing out the ruse from the young salesman. Seth disappointedly explained that these people simply do not have a sense of humor.
The cops who arrived to investigate found the sign and its maker hilarious, and widened his reach by covering his story and posting it to Facebook.
“Quite honestly, once our officers got there they found it quite ingenious,” Lt. Tony Ferderber admitted, according to CNN.
“This young man, in the area of 600 South 200 East, has a twist on a lemonade stand,” the Brigham City Police Department posted. “Yep, he’s selling beer … ROOT BEER, that is.
“His marketing strategy has resulted in several calls to the BCPD, but apparently its paid off as business has been good.”
Liftable, a section of The Western Journal, has reached out to the BCPD for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
Of course, mom Alexis Parker revealed that she’d helped out a bit with the campaign, but let her son run with it. “What better way to get peoples’ attention?” she said.
And it certainly has done that — after getting Mitt Romney’s attention, Seth now has a goal of selling one of his ice-cold “beers” to President Trump.
This young man is learning valuable life lessons, making people laugh, earning some spending cash and getting into “trouble” in the best sort of way — and isn’t that what summer should be all about?
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