'Sign war' between Missouri businesses goes viral

July 19 (UPI) -- A "sign war" between a Missouri McDonald's and a nearby Dairy Queen is going viral, with other neighboring businesses firing their own shots.

The marquee melee began last week, when the sign outside the Marshfield McDonald's was changed to read: "HEY DQ! WANNA HAVE A SIGN WAR?"

The neighboring Dairy Queen soon accepted the challenge with the message: "WE WLD BUT WERE 2 BUSY MAKIN ICECREAM."

A back-and-forth followed, with the eateries trading barbs, including a swipe at McDonald's infamously oft-broken ice cream machines.

"Marshfield is such a close community, we're all like family here," Randy Bryant, the local director of operations for McDonald's, told KOLR-TV. "Mario on our team had a great idea to get this all started! He said, 'It's hot, the world is throwing everyone challenges and negativity,' so we all found a way to laugh and have fun as a community."

Photos of the warring signs were posted to Facebook by the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce, and soon other nearby businesses joined in the war of words.

"Ice cream machine broken? We have a loan for that," the electronic sign at Arvest Bank read this week.

Wendy's, a chain famous for its acid-tongued Twitter account, fired its own opening salvo at McDonald's: "HOT AND CRISPY FRIES DON'T ARCH."

Eve Metheny, Hamra Enterprises director of brand marketing, gave the Marshfield Wendy's clearance to join the fray.

"People want to laugh and chuckle about things like that, so I think people are just craving that right now," Metheny told the Springfield News-Leader.

Angela Jones, shift lead of the Marshfield Dairy Queen, said the war will continue until someone surrenders -- and it won't be her eatery.