Tags
antiques, dress barn, excelsior avenue, facebook, over blue waters antiques of asia, sexy asian farmhouse antiques, st. louis park, twin cities metro
Hubby and I spent time in the Twin Cities metro area yesterday. While driving through St. Louis Park we saw a chain store that has perhaps the worst name I can think of for a fine retail clothing store: Dress Barn. Do you really want to buy a dress from a barn? The clothing inside is nice, but the name causes such a sense of dissonance in me that I don’t want to shop there. Names really can make or break a store.
Soon after seeing the Dress Barn and making commentary on it to Hubby, we spotted a sandwich board sidewalk sign along Excelsior Boulevard that said “Sexy Asian Farmhouse Antiques” and busted a gut in laughter.
Let’s read that again …
Sexy
Asian
Farmhouse
Antiques.
Now that’s a name that piques the curiosity! Wowee zowee! You could pair most of those words and come up with the typical: Sexy Asian, Asian Farmhouse, Farmhouse Antiques, Sexy Antiques, Asian Antiques. Sexy Farmhouse is unusual, but Sexy Asian Farmhouse Antiques? That’s something worth checking out. Hubby and I weren’t sure if this was the name of the store or merely a way to attract attention, but it worked.
When I conducted an online search of the term, I found Sexy Asian Farmhouse Antiques has its own Facebook fan page. The page looks new, like it was started in February. The actual business name appears to be Over Blue Waters Antiques of Asia.
We are not alone in wonderment concerning the Sexy Asian Farmhouse Antiques sign. Theresa B. over at Egret Effects has written about the sandwich board sign and includes a picture. So has S. La at I Make Stuff Up. There have also been numerous tweets about the sign.
Thankfully I’m not so old and cynical that strange word arrangements have no affect on me. I haven’t seen everything yet.
My guess is this: The choice of words were not contrived to draw in the curious, my guess is that the advertising words chosen were written in a foreign language and poorly translated.
I once did graphic design work for Johnson & Johnson which was translated into a bazillion languages. The translations were done by computer programs but the firm employed people who knew the native language so screen translations where the nuance of the definition was off…like the difference between exotic and sexy…
Thanks for the best commentary I’ve seen on this sign Mary. The man behind Sexy Asian Farmhouse Antiques is actually a marketing genius, who knew exactly what he was doing with the eye-catching word combination. It’s been an especially large hit among 20-30 year olds.
Check out his antiques. They are what he claims, direct from farmhouses in rural China. Then buy some. Love, the wife of the genius.
Thanks for the compliment on my commentary, Jillien. Your husband IS a marketing genius and the name still intrigues. I love that you’re so supportive of his endeavor that you’re willing to leave a comment on a random blog about it and to call him a genius, to boot. It’s exactly the sort of thing I’d do for my husband. Cheers to you!