Fücking beer causes offence

A beer supposedly named after the town of Fücking in Austria has sparked a new round of complaints after its ads appeared on the website of a political party.

With its creators claiming the beer is named after the infamous Austrian town, “Fucking Hell” (“hell” meaning “light” in German) has caused headaches since it launched in 2011 with a trademark even being denied originally until its creators got approval from the EU Trademark Authority.

This time the beer was being promoted on the website of a fringe right-wing party in Austria, The Freedom Party.

The party’s headquarters is based in the district of Schaerding in Upper Austria and Fücking is the neighbouring district. The Freedom Party claimed it was showing “solidarity” with its neighbours by promoting the beer.

The town of Fücking shot to fame (of a sort) some years ago when it was named in a list of rude sounding places around the world.

Since then the town has had to endure multiple thefts of its town signs, with a wonderfully unaware town mayor despairing to foreign journalists (no doubt struggling to hide their giggles): “Twelve or 13 Fucking town signs have been stolen. We’ve taken to fixing them with concrete, welding and rivets.”

The German towns of Pissen, Petting and Kissing are also said to have the same problem.

Incidentally though, despite hitting the papers in a small way it is unclear whether it was the beer’s name or the platform on which it was promoted which caused the most upset.