Foo Who?

One sign on Whalley beckoned viewers to tune into a band many of them have never heard of — while across the street another sign required viewers to crane their heads to read it.

Those mysteries of modern marketing were found by the corner of Whalley Avenue and Winthrop Avenue.

The “alternative rock” station WMRQ-FM has its billboard up a bit away from the heavily traveled intersection, on the side of the L&A Mini-Mart convenience store.

The billboard promotes the station in connection with the band the Foo Fighters.

Regulars hanging out on the corner one recent morning said they never heard of the band Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl formed in 1994 to the delight of grunge and hard rock fans nationwide. They had no inkling of why that billboard was placed on their corner. (They didn’t give their names.)

One of the corner dwellers pointed across Whalley, above a pizza restaurant.

“You should take a picture of that billboard,” he said. ​“Who can read that?”

That billboard advertised the services of Meriden-based Logan Steel — if you’re able to read upside down.

CBS Outdoor, which owns both billboard spots, put the sign up that way on purpose, according to New York-based Chief Marketing Officer Jodi Senese. Logan Steel bought 75 billboards in the region and asked that 15 of them appear upside down.

Companies do that more than you’d think, she said: It ​“creates a buzz.”

“You get a little media attention — like I’m getting from you,” Senese noted. ​“You’re going to put a picture [in the article]. How great is that? Mission accomplished.”

(The Logan Steel ad was replaced by a different billboard this weekend.)

WMRQ-FM, on the other hand, didn’t intentionally choose that spot on Winthrop Avenue. The Hartford-based station asked just that it get a sign up somewhere in New Haven as part of a bulk buy, Senese said.