A Town Called Jenniferann.com

Abstract

In the year 2000, a small conservative New Zealand town received a new name. Pokeno became JenniferAnn.com. Why take on such a name? Familiar to motorists as the town at the end of the Southern Motorway, in the 1990s Pokeno was also “Bacon Country.” Distinctive welcome signs featured pink pigs that smiled at the 12,000 motorists entering Pokeno daily. They sat within a plethora of messages: Coca Cola, Mobil, Kodak, speed limit signs, and utility instructions. In 1999, the motorway bypassed Pokeno. With reduced traffic, how could this little town retain a place on the map? Enter JenniferAnn.com, brainchild of the owner of an Internet lingerie business. Renaming the town JenniferAnn.com was a stunt to propel Pokeno—and JenniferAnn.com—to great publicity. The town moved from having a name to being a brand. The highly local became global. Pokeno—now JenniferAnn.com—became a site in cyberspace.

Economic decline and gentrification in a small town: the business sector in Aberdeen, Eastern Cape

“…Recently, some restaurants and curio shops have opened in Aberdeen to attract this market, but the lack of signage prevents them from functioning to their full potential. Again, this suggests a strategic role for the municipality, to facilitate marketing and signage to attract custom from the highway (Bell & Lyall, 2002).…”

‘Selling the creative city’: Wellington tourism film in the neoliberal era

“…As Goldson (2006), Bell and Lyall (1995) and Taylor (1998) argued, throughout the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century the production and circulation of images of New Zealand through painting, photography and film was informed by the necessity to showcase and promote local natural attractions overseas and, at the same time, to stimulate and increase migration flows to the country. Through the lens of the settler culture and gaze, images depicting colonial landscapes becameaccording to Gibbons (2002) 'as important as words' (9).…”

Jenniferann.com, regional development, and realising the aspirations of mana whenua in Pōkeno

“…The township of Pōkeno lies south of Auckland, between the southern side of the Bombay Hills and the Waikato River (see Figure in the Introductory paper in this issue). In their paper entitled “A town called http://Jenniferann.com,” Bell and Lyall () describe Pōkeno as a small conservative New Zealand town that fell into decline as a result of the motorway bypassing it in 1992. Prior to this, Pōkeno had been branded as “bacon country,” due to the popularity of the local butcher shop.…”

“…Compounding this, the long‐lasting effects of deregulation and government restructuring meant that Pōkeno became an example of a rural New Zealand town in decline (Le Heron & Pawson, ; Pawson & Scott, ; Wilson, ). It was an important time in the town's history and, according to Bell and Lyall () local business people, worried about the impact that the bypass would have, turned to drastic measures. One of these measures related to the re‐naming and re‐branding of the town itself.…”