A Texas-based Web-hosting company doled out $7,000 to tattoo its name on a man’s noggin. An Internet casino paid a woman $15,000 to name her newborn boy GoldenPalaceDotCom.
Now, EchoStar Communications Corp. is offering millions of dollars worth of programming to a city that is willing to change its name to Dish – the brand name of its satellite-TV service.
The Douglas County-based company said Tuesday it will provide free Dish Network service for 10 years to all households in the first U.S. municipality willing to change its name legally and permanently.
So far, the responses have been lukewarm.
“After 145 years of being Littleton, I’m not sure we’re interested in changing our name for free satellite television,” said Kelli Narde, director of communications for the city of Littleton, where the company was launched two decades ago and where many of EchoStar’s 5,000 Colorado employees work.
EchoStar admits that the offer will probably draw more interest from a small town.
“We recognize it’s going to be difficult for a city like Denver to change its name,” EchoStar spokesman Steve Caulk said. “But we’d love to talk to Denver.”
No thanks, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said.
“It’s definitely a creative marketing effort, but we are quite happy with the name Denver,” mayoral spokeswoman Lindy Eichenbaum Lent said.
Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer quipped, “I guess we should be happy it’s not the Bowl or Plate network.”
But officials in Remerton, Ga., which has a population of about 900, are apparently taking the offer seriously. Remerton’s city manager has arranged a meeting with a Dish reseller to discuss the offer, Caulk said.
Remerton city officials couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
EchoStar estimates that it would cost $4 million to provide free programming, equipment and installation for 1,000 households.
Marketing expert Rick Sterling called EchoStar’s latest advertising campaign provocative and clever.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Sterling said. “It probably won’t cost them a penny because nobody will do it.”
Maybe not, but stranger things have happened.
In 1950, the town of Hot Springs, N.M., renamed itself after radio quiz show “Truth or Consequences” when the program’s host said he would do the show from the first town willing to change its name to the show’s title.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
