A couple of weeks ago I had a little post on the venerable town of Fucking (pop. 93) in Upper Austria, 40 km from where I live.
I have unearthed more information on this family travel destination. First of all, there was a referendum in the town in 2004 on whether to change the name. The proud and brave citizens of Fucking voted against any change by a large margin.
I have also discovered that Fucking has already been mocked in the mass media, by none other than Graham Norton, the arch-gay British TV show host. I used to watch his show once in a while when I lived in London and he can be funny, though it's not exactly high-brow humor. Here is the link to watch him poke fun at this proud town on his show.
I was also pleased to find that an enterprising young couple in Fucking have shrugged off any irritation over how people seem to find their town laughable -- and instead they have wisely decided to capitalize on it. They now have a website where they sell t-shirts with the name of the town and pictures of its signs. Well, if you can't beat them, join them... this is smart move since there probably aren't too many jobs in such a small town as Fucking outside of agriculture. Ah, the joys of global capitalism!
But the possibilities don't end here -- think about it, proud people of Fucking. You hold intangible asset value in your town's trademark name: you could branch out and capitalize on this further by building a large convention center and hosting conferences for the porn industry or swinger's clubs. The sexual revolution marches on to the tune of cash nowadays -- but then again, sex has always sold well.
No comments:
Post a Comment