Cuz the Murkins got three big smokestacks within a week’s drive (or they did when I was a kid on a family vacation) and we drove by them all and laffed at the identical billboards: “World’s biggest smokestack”

Alrighty then.

And they also got the world’s biggest witch-hunt, so they seem to say with the usual measure of truthiness.©S.Colbert

There’s a scene in “Elf”–Will Farrell—when the elf reads a New York diner’s sign saying “world’s best coffee” and runs in to congratulate the owners on their achievement. The laff is on any idiot who believes advertising.

So the Swiss could market their witch-hunt concept, but would take a hit in credibility by default. They would forfeit some of what they’re selling due to the pitch.

Is this a Schrodinger corollary for marketers? To wit: When something is observed/branded/ shilled, it changes into what sells instead of what is?

In Swiss witch-hunt’s, case, a marketable commodity—no argument—receives some of its commodityness from the historical facts. And the rest from excellent lighting direction on the rack of skulls.

Try to sell it minus the production values, exactly the way it used to look?…eeeew. Bloodstains, shrieks, stench. No mugs. No coasters. No halogens.

Wondering if it could be as simple as…the Swiss aren’t that proud of this little vignette in their history? “high class European disdain”…or something like that, right?

I dunno, doc. If this place could be sold as a real carrier of meaning—feminine divinity vs bearded theology–that’s one thing; but then that’s highclass intellectual disdain.

What the Swiss would appreciate in their Swiss bank accounts is probly mug/coaster revenue, as you assert. As long as they don’t have to curdle their history with the shilling.