RICHARDSON, Texas — A lawn in Richardson is getting a lot of attention on Reddit after a company put a sign in the yard advertising for lawn care.
The sign says, “Your lawn was not treated today, your neighbor’s was.” Dr. Green Lawn Service is the business listed on the sign. A phone number is shown, and current deals are posted too.
The advertisement landed on Robert Stricker’s lawn, who wasn’t too pleased.
The Richardson resident’s front yard isn’t in the best shape.
Stricker says he gets around to cutting the grass and the shrubs every now and then but isn’t ashamed to share that the City of Richardson has sent him some letters instructing him to mow as soon as possible.
“When it gets a little out of hand, I come out here and I take care of it,” Stricker said.
So, when the sign landed in Stricker’s self-admitted poorly maintained yard—he says he took it personally.
“I thought what’s so bad about my lawn? It’s not the prettiest, but it felt like they were trying to shame me,” he said. “Kind of like, look how much nicer your neighbor’s lawn looks now.”
“Like an arms race of domestic luxuries.”
Last week, Stricker took to Reddit and posted a picture of the sign.
In the post, he accused Dr. Green of putting the sign in his yard without his permission and shaming him for the quality of his lawn.
Within a few hours, the post made it to the front page of Reddit—which in many circles is known as the definition of viral.
“I really never had something go viral before, so it wasn’t really something that I was expecting,” Stricker said.
In the post, a lot of commenters sympathized with Stricker. Others, however, tried stand-up comedy.
“My favorite review was someone who said, ‘Oh, how will you ever recover from having a sign put on your lawn.’ Like we will rebuild kind of thing,” Stricker said with a laugh.
A spokesperson for Dr. Green told WFAA that the company just recently started putting the signs in yards to generate business buzz.
But the practice has since been stopped after the post went viral on Reddit, the spokesperson said. They also stressed that there was never any intention to upset anyone and that they never expected to get this kind of attention.
Stricker says that’s the power of the internet.
“You kind of think of the internet as yelling into the wind. You do it sometimes and nothing really ever comes of it,” Stricker said.
“Definitely never expected any actual change in policy or anything like that.”
But Stricker says he gives Dr. Green credit, adding that the sign reminded him he needed to trim the grass.
“It definitely made me a little more conscious of my lawn care habits in general,” he said.