Vancouver's Penthouse strip club may be more famous for its signs than anything else, especially after last week.
That's when the venue's marquee simply read "Forever Neighbour, Never Neighbor," playing off the spelling differences between Canadian and American English.
The phrase was a succinct way to reject the idea Canada would ever join the United States but remain friendly with Canada's southern neighbour, and the sign quickly became popular with locals.
However, the sign got even more attention when Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) determined a tweet of the photo was hate speech; even some European news media took note.
The simple phrase was created by Benjamin Jackson, who manages the sign (among other things) at the historic club.
History of the phrase
Jackson has been the guy behind the sign for eight years now, and in that time it's become a popular sight for those passing by the club's home at 1019 Seymour St.
Over the holidays, the Penthouse was closed for several weeks. Jackson had some time to think of some new sign jokes, especially after his flight home from Toronto was delayed three times.
While waiting in the airport lounge, watching the TV news on a loop he saw a story about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggesting Canada become the country's 51st state.
The original phrase was "We'll never be your neighbor" Jackson explains, with the "u" missing from neighbour.
Jackson says he shared the idea with Penthouse owner Danny Filippone and a group of friends.
While his friends liked the jokey phrase, they were concerned it wouldn't land with people passing on the street. Jackson gave it some more thought and boarded the plane. Before setting his phone to airplane mode, he came up with the four-word phrase that would wind up on the sign.
"That joke just hit me," says Jackson. "My brain was just working at it."
He fired it off to the group and Filippone responded in all caps: "THAT'S THE ONE."
When he landed in Vancouver, Jackson headed home to drop off his bags and then over to the Penthouse to get the sign up.
"I think I had the sign up 2:30 a.m.," says Jackson. "When I woke up it was getting a lot of attention."
Fallout from a sign
The sign went up on January 8 and immediately got attention online.
"I would say 95 per cent of the comments are very positive, patriotic, and pro-Canadian," Jackson says. "That small 5 per cent are basically sticking up for Trump or Musk or Americans sticking up for America."
While most of the responses have been positive, the Penthouse did have its X/Twitter account temporarily suspended for violating "the X Hateful Profile Policy."
"As soon as you see [the words] hate speech you feel your heart drop," he says. "I couldn't believe what I was reading."
However, the suspension was dropped a couple of days later.
While the Penthouse marquee has gone viral before, Jackson says this particular sign's popularity is different.
"Even after day one, Danny called me and said this just feels different," he says. "This one is noticeably different."
The #worldfamous #Penthouse in #Vancouver sums it up best for #Canada: It’s all in the #spelling. 😉🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦💯
— Sarah Daniels (@sarahdaniels.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 9:03 PM
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One reason for that, he explains, is instead of it just being a clever joke, there's a level of Canadian pride mixed in, and people are eager to engage with it.
Jackson is enjoying the popularity and says the sign might stay up a bit longer than usual.
"When you hit a home run, be happy with that," he says.
At the same time, he doesn't think it's his best work.
"I don't think that's the funniest sign I've ever come up with."
T-shirt coming
The sign is spurring something new at the Penthouse: merch.
"A shirt has been designed, we signed off on it last night," Jackson tells V.I.A. by phone on Monday, Jan. 13 (see slide 3 above).
It's a "by popular demand" situation he explains; at first, his boss was sending images of all the emails received seeking a t-shirt with the "Forever Neighbours, Never Neighbours" phrase, but it got to be too much.
"It's honestly hundreds of inquiries," Jackson says. "There was a gentleman in Seattle who said he'd want 100 shirts."
Jackson says the club has received phone calls along with many, many comments on social media. It's not clear how many people will actually buy the shirt, Jackson notes, but the Penthouse is setting things up to sell them.
"As early as this week we're going to put something on our social media for people to order them," he says.
