What's in a name? For town of DISH, free TV

It was 1950 when Hot Springs, N.M., voted 1,294-295 to change its name to Truth or Consequences. Host Ralph Edwards, who died Wednesday at age 92, had promised to broadcast the popular radio show from the town that agreed to the change.

In 2000, Halfway, Ore., become Half.com for a year in an agreement that put $100,000 in the town coffer and a new computer lab in the school.

The rural town of 345 used the money to buy a snow plow, something former Mayor Marvin Burgraff said was badly needed and has already been used several times this year. And it gave the area known for its outdoor splendor a tourist boon that continues to this day.

Though the name is back to Halfway, the town still has signs that read "Welcome to Half.com, the World's First Dot-com City."

"It was a good experience," said Burgraff, who served as mayor after the decision had already been approved. "It was kind of fun. You look back on it and it's good thoughts."

In an age of pervasive advertising most people ignore, such stunts are a good way to grab the public's attention, said Mark Hughes, chief executive of Buzzmarketing and the former Half.com executive who devised the Oregon deal.

"Word of mouth is most powerful form of communication and marketing out there," Hughes said via telephone from Santa, where he's now leading the effort to get Santa, Idaho, renamed. "No one's going to talk about the three-thousandth Web site that launched this week. What this does is give people a reason to talk."

Sour milk?
Offers of corporate interest have backfired in some communities.

In 2003, residents of Biggs, Calif., overwhelmingly rejected a California Milk Processor Board proposal to rename the city of 1,800 to Got Milk? in exchange for a milk museum and money for the local school.

"People's take on it was, 'This is just an advertising ploy by the milk board.' There was a certain segment of population that wanted to tar and feather the mayor for even suggesting it," city clerk Marlee Mattos recalled. "Now people bring it up jokingly, everybody groans and moves on."

Gary Ruskin, of the nonprofit Commercial Alert, said towns should provide services such as trash collection and education, not “hawk television at its residents,” he said.

“The names of our civic places reflect our values and our aspirations,” Ruskin said. “It’s wrong to sever the link between civic names and civic virtue.”

But Merritt, mayor of the town now called DISH, said work had already begun to change the town’s dozen street signs. He doesn’t see the new name ever going out of favor.

“I can’t see right now that people would want to change it,” he said. “Clark will always be a part of our history, but this is our new identity.”

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