Iconic Penthouse Nightclub marquee celebrated in coffee table book

In the last 10 years, the sign outside the Penthouse strip club in downtown Vancouver has become a cultural icon of sorts.

A decade ago, when the Pokemon Go craze was starting to take hold in Vancouver, Benjamin Jackson, a bartender at The Penthouse strip club in Downtown Vancouver, had an idea.

He asked his boss if he could put “Rare Pokemon Inside” on the club’s marquee outside. The message went viral, and the rest is history.

Jackson has been known as the Penthouse sign guy ever since, and photos of many of his clever marquee messages that touch on current events and local controversies have gotten millions of views online.

“I think everybody remembers the CEO getting caught having an affair at the Coldplay concert. The sign I came up with that was: “Don’t worry, guys. Coldplay isn’t here.” That one got a lot of good feedback,” said Jackson.

“A few years back when they had those riots in DC at the U.S. Capitol, I changed the sign to: “Better security than the U.S. Capitol.:” And that one went over well, too,” he added.

It was a patriotic message reading “Always Neighbours, Never Neighbors” in response to President Donald Trump’s 51st state rhetoric that got him a publishing deal.

Jackson and club owner Danny Filippone picked the 50 marquee images that fill the book “A Sign of the Times” which has been released just in time for Christmas.

“We tried to get a lot of stuff that touched on Vancouver. We knew that obviously, this is where we get a lot of our recognition is from the city. But we also wanted to get ones that were pop culture,” said Jackson. “We kind of just picked our best ones, our personal favourites.”

The book was celebrated at a release party at the Penthouse last Friday.

“The publisher was here, and he agreed that he hasn’t really seen anything with this momentum. And obviously the timing with the holidays, I think it’ll be a success,” said Jackson.

While the pressure to constantly come up with clever and timely marquee messages can be a bit overwhelming, Jackson said he will continue to try to live up to his sign guy nickname.

“For instance, I have one that I think is gold for the World Cup next year,” he said. “I hope I have enough in me. I’ll try my best anyway.”