Tangential story: I live in Norway where neon signs are basically unknown (or at least, were back then). When I was a kid and visited the continent for the first time, I recall being struck by how common neon signs were, even in "serious" establishments like drug stores. At the time, already the pretentious aesthete, I quickly decided that the popularity of neon signs on the continent was a sign of poor taste.

After reading this article, I wonder why these kinds of differences between countries exist. In Norway it would almost be gauche to open a brick-and-mortar business without first hiring a designer to create your visual expression, but other countries seem to like neon signs (and the like) better or alternatively just don't care as much about the visual design of a store's sign.