Free What?

I ran into an old buddy the other day. He was a rising entrepreneur, but now he looked down and out. What gives? He begins wailing his tale. 

"I had a restaurant out there on the interstate, you know. Spent a fortune on a new high-rise sign to attract traffic. It did, too. It read 'free cocktail with dinner!' The 'cocktail' was flashing red neon. Was it impressive!" 

"Sounds like a good idea. So what went wrong?" 

"Oh, the county took notice, inspection crews come out, I'm harassed all the time by the Planning department, the churches in the neighborhood have filed compaints-" 

"Hey, I thought you ran a stand-up operation out there." 

"I did. Half my flashing red neon burned out!" 

"Oh, I see..." I thought a minute. "Which half?" 

"Don't make no difference!" he wailed.