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When I worked with a banking client, it was well known in the marketing department that the best efforts they made would be derailed in branch by staff who were armed with a felt tip pen, a roll of sellotape and poorly suppressed creative urges.
Everyone from the local greengrocer to global finance giants manages to mess up when they want to say something simple about an unexpected event or to make a request to retail customers.
For example, just after the credit crunch (and when a cold snap had hit) a shop in Bristol city centre had a sign on the door saying Closed due to cold - please come in. This had a particularly unfortunate effect when posted among shops that had closed permanently due to bankers' cocaine habits.
A local restaurant used to have the following notice on every menu: Order strictly from the menu. Any variation will incurr a £1 additional charge. Apart from the obvious hostility to customers implied, they were actually missing a marketing opportunity. Maybe they would have made more money by saying We will be pleased to accommodate off-menu orders at additional cost.
As a final example, an entire retail development (also in Bristol) had this sign distributed liberally around when building work was underway:
Over 300 shops open during refurbishment. We look forward to seeing you.
This starts well but why put the 'seeing you' in the future tense? Come on in would be better, given that the shops actually want me to visit them today, not at some point in the future.
See also how to say yes. | 
