Town Comitee votes to change town name to that

[timbaly]

Yesterday I found out about an odd incident in am New York, a free paper with minimal content. So far this is what I understand from their story: A small rural town in New Jersey called Richland will be changing it's name to Mojito for the first half of this month. A Mojito is an alcholic drink made with rum and mint leaves. Richland's town comitee agreed to change their name in a unanimous vote because Bacardi agreed t give the town $5,000 for public works projects.
I have a few questions about this. Would Bacardi have paid them without the name change? Why did Bacardi even confront the town about it, what are they getting out of it?

[SittingBull47]

hmm. I know Richland, NJ but I didn't hear about this. It's possible though, it's an obvious plug for Bacardi but the whole concept is really stupid. Mojito? fuck that. No, I don't think Bacardi would fund the public works projects without the name change.

[timbaly]

I just reread tha article and found out that there are many mint farms in Richland, but it doesn't say whether or not bacardi get's their mint leaves from Richland. I would be surprised if they did buy them from the non-third world.

[Cobra]

what are [Bacardi] getting out of it?
Publicity. By giving the town 5,000 dollars to change its name to a one that’s highly controversial the word Bacardi has been spead across radio, television, newspapers, and even the Che Lives Forum. That’s a lot of publicity for only $5,000.

[seen_che]

yeah ...those cheep bastards...a name change is huge thats a lot of work a lot of ree printing and stuff....that will cost a bundel...

[timbaly]

I don't think they got much publicity from it, maybe more than $5000 but still not a lot. I've only heard about it through a sub-par free morning newspaper which wrote about six lines on it.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

$5,000 isnt that much... is it only temporary?

[timbaly]

Originally posted by el-[email protected] 11 2004, 04:35 PM
$5,000 isnt that much... is it only temporary?
Yes it is only temporary. It's only for half of the month of May.

[Hampton]

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Here's a new Bacardi recipe: Take a small New Jersey community, add $5,000 US, and for half a month, you've got a locality named after a cocktail.

For the first half of May, the small, rural community of Richland will be called Mojito, named for a drink made of rum, mint leaves, lime, sugar and club soda. Richland is a section of Buena Vista Township, near Atlantic City.

Link (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/05/05/447622-ap.html)


but it doesn't say whether or not bacardi get's their mint leaves from Richland.


A Bacardi spokesman says it makes sense to recruit Richland to change its name rather than a big city like Miami -- which is where Bacardi is headquartered -- because the company gets much of its mint from Dalponte Farms in the town.

Link (http://www.ncbuy.com/news/2004-05-05/1009538.html)