October 30, 2002

9:18 AM

Got Milk? High?Do we really need a town called Got Milk?, Calif.? One town is thinking about changing its name to get money. Is this a cool idea, or are marketing people going nuts?
posted by scudder (21 comments total)

If it were just "Gotmilk, CA" I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it. I mean, Gotmilk sounds vaguely Scandinavian and sort of cute, in my opinion. But "Got Milk?, CA", with the space and the question mark, is just silly.
posted by wanderingmind at 9:30 AM on October 30, 2002

It's like Half.com, Oregon.
posted by o2b at 9:32 AM on October 30, 2002

Or Truth or Consequences, NM - which was named after a radio gameshow.
posted by PenDevil at 9:44 AM on October 30, 2002

Half.com should have to change its name to Half.eBay.com ...
posted by mrgrimm at 9:48 AM on October 30, 2002

Got Milk? I can deal with (although Gotmilk would be better). I have a street near where I live named "Industrial Chemical Way" which sounds so, so much worse, and the reasoning behind naming it such cannot be much better!
posted by Wylie Kyoto at 9:48 AM on October 30, 2002

Maybe little Iuma and Turok can go live there.
posted by briank at 9:50 AM on October 30, 2002

Wylie: Ouch. I only hope nobody lives on that street... (On preview: thanks, Brian, now I'm imagining the Neighborhood of Ugly Names...)
posted by wanderingmind at 9:54 AM on October 30, 2002

If this goes through, let's hope this place can cash in.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:14 AM on October 30, 2002

It's like Half.com, Oregon.

Naw. It's more like "Where's The Beef?, Oregon," when it should be "Wendy's, Oregon."

You want to name yourself after a brand—after all, branding == naming + identity—fine, that's your perogative, and it just might work... but for god's sake people, don't name yourself after a slogan.

Quality Is Job #1, Nebraska?
Let Your Fingers Do The Walking, New York?
The Breakfast of Champions, Florida?
posted by teradome at 10:44 AM on October 30, 2002

So seeing as how the "Got Milk" ads are for no one specific provider of milk, they should just name themselves "Milk, California"?
posted by wanderingmind at 10:50 AM on October 30, 2002

Got whores?
posted by soyjoy at 11:05 AM on October 30, 2002

I'm trying to get, got out of my vocabulary.........I'm just glad to see the folks of this town got to vote on it.


Side note they mention in the article how the town could use the money from the name change. Yet what would this cost the town's folks when they have to reprint and rename their address. Ever have your area code re-numbered?

Got Cash is a better name as it will tell the real history of this town.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:15 AM on October 30, 2002

I'm not sure if these places are real, or just figments of my CRS systems imagination (I work in travel.....), but Pakistan and Illinois seem to be competing for the weirdest town names if these three letter codes are to be believed:

WEE - French Desk, Illinois

OQP - Air Hostess, Pakistan

Unfortunately, having spent the last few months trying to find any other reference to these places other than what SABRE (our reservations software) claims, I'm beginning to think they are some kind of in joke on the part of some disgruntled American Airlines employee (they created the SABRE system).

Incidentally,

TCS - Truth or Consequence, New Mexico
posted by davehat at 11:15 AM on October 30, 2002

TCS - Truth or Consequence

Hey they can't use my intials, Matt did you sell it?
Signed, hom at pike.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:20 AM on October 30, 2002

>I have a street near where I live named "Industrial Chemical Way" which sounds so, so much worse, and the reasoning behind naming it such cannot be much better!

My local bell telco is on... (drumroll)...

1 Bell Way. (or it might be lane, I can't remember).

At least it doesn't have a (TM) beside it.
posted by shepd at 11:26 AM on October 30, 2002

What will the high school football team be called? The Mighty Udders?
posted by spilon at 11:50 AM on October 30, 2002

Would they call the cheerleaders the Pretty Titties?
posted by orange swan at 11:58 AM on October 30, 2002

Signed, hom at pike.
Hah!

I worked on the Milk Where's Your Mustache? campaign as an PR intern years ago (just before that campaign and the Got Milk? campaign merged). These people are nuts.
posted by me3dia at 12:49 PM on October 30, 2002

Or Truth or Consequences, NM - which was named after a radio gameshow.

Another example is the Pennsylvania towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, which merged in the 1950s, to become Jim Thorpe. The towns made the name change in exchange for a mausoleum with the remains of old-school football great, Jim Thorpe, in the hopes of attracting the National Football Hall of Fame, which was eventually built in Canton, Ohio.
posted by jonp72 at 1:41 PM on October 30, 2002

don't forget that mrs. thorpe was really strapped and ended up having to give up her husband's remains.

he deserved more for what he did for american sports then that crappy town, no offense.
posted by the aloha at 2:49 PM on October 30, 2002

Off the letters went to Tulelake (Siskiyou County), to Colfax (Placer County), Industry (Los Angeles County)

The City of Industry? My god why would they want milk associated with that hell hole of urban blight?

As long as we're doing the street name thing, I live very near Jone's Sausage. And Yes, there is a sausage plant there, also the plant where they make Slim Jims! Mmmmm you can smell'em when you drive by.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:48 PM on October 30, 2002