Naked Nymph Provides Marketing Opportunity
We all like our wine, and when we drink too much of it, we may start imagining things, like a nude nymph flying next to a bicycle with wings. And if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle of Cycles Gladiator wine, you don’t even have to get drunk to see it, because that’s the actual label.
It was the label that started it all for the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, who don’t seem to drink enough themselves, because they banned Cycles Gladiator and their naked nymph mascot. The label violates an Alabama law against “displaying a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking. We’re talking about a winged nymph here, not a human being, so the law doesn’t apply. Unfortunately, that defense didn’t fly (pun intended) for the Alabama guys, but that didn’t disappoint the makers of Cycles Gladiator wines all that much. Bill Leigon, President of Hahn Family Wines of California, the company that sports the controversial nymph and her spunky flying bicycle sidekick, is actually quite happy about it. Since the story broke on the Alabaman ban, visits to his company’s website have shot up by a factor of 10. According to good old Bill, callers from across the country, all caught up in Alabaman Ban Fever, have been asking where they can buy the wine.
Capitalizing on Alabaman conservatism he’s even developed store displays that say “Banned in Bama” and “Taste What They Can’t Have in Alabama.”
Apparently, the ban was issued last year and nobody ever told Bill about it or cared that nobody was listening to it, until a Concerned Citizen sent in the label to the Alcohol Board, who then, in a fit of concerned activism and enraged decency, advised restaurants to stop selling the stuff. Sales are now way up in California, so they’re going to be drinking a lot more nude nymph wine.
Flying bicycle sales are also rumored to have spiked.
