Controversy Over Advert For Fucking Hell Beer
An Austrian political party has defended a decision to promote a local beer named after the village of Fucking.
And because the beer is a light beer, and the German word for light is “hell”, the beer from Fucking is naturally known as Fucking Hell.
It was a move that caused problems for the company behind the slick marketing stunt at first when it was banned as a trademark, but the company took the fight all the way to the EU’s trademark authority which accepted that although it might be an obscene swear word in the English language, in the German language it was simply the name of the village – and a light ‘hell’ type of beer.
The adverts for the beer were being promoted on the website of the Austrian Freedom party, the FPOe, in the district of Schaerding, which is the neighbouring district of Fucking, in the northern Austrian province of Upper Austria, saying it was a way of showing solidarity with their neighbours.
The advert on the homepage goes to a website where it is possible to buy the alcohol from the neighbouring village of “Fucking”.
In 2010 the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union said in a statement that it had rejected a complaint that the trade mark “Fucking Hell” was upsetting, accusatory and derogatory.
The Office said in its statement: “The word combination claimed contains no semantic indication that could refer to a certain person or group of persons. Nor does it incite a particular act. It cannot even be understood as an instruction that the reader should go to hell.”
German marketing executives Stefan Fellenberg, 38, and Florian Krause, 32, who own the rights to the brand name, said they had referred to the town of Fucking in their application to register it.
The latest publicity thanks to the Freedom Party is likely to boost beer sales, which is something that will be good for the town if it brings in any extra money.
Franz Meindl, the village’s mayor, certainly needs it. He said: “Twelve or thirteen Fucking town signs have been stolen. We’ve taken to fixing them with concrete, welding and rivets.”
The Bavarian towns of Kissing and Petting have the same problem, as does the eastern German town of Pissen. But so far, there are no plans to name a beer after them.