C’est Ironique Sign of the Weeque
Sometimes I think the commercial enterprises of Paris are engaged in a competition to see who can come up with the most meaningless, inexplicable trade name. Consider this storefront on Rue de Dunkerque.
“Poping”? It doesn’t sell religious paraphernalia, so it has nothing to do with that dogma cat in Rome. In fact, since it’s a service (“temporary rental of sales and event spaces”), it doesn’t sell any goods at all, so it isn’t even a shop.
My best guess is that the owners wanted the name to evoke the word “pop” as in “pop-up store,” and forgot to double the “p.” And then forgot to call me in as a branding consultant. It’s too bad — I would have been glad to grant them an audience and engage in some infallible pontificating. Perhaps I should open a shop…
Have you seen a ridiculous sign in Paris? Or anywhere in France? Send me a photo in care of contact@paris-update.com
FavoriteAn album of David Jaggard’s comic compositions is now available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music, for purchase (whole or track by track) on iTunes and Amazon, and on every other music downloading service in the known universe, under the title “Totally Unrelated.”
Note to readers: David Jaggard’s e-book Quorum of One: Satire 1998-2011 is available from Amazon as well as iTunes, iBookstore, Nook, Reader Store, Kobo, Copia and many other distributors.