Quirky signboards...

I had previously posted pictures/comments about quirky signboards, such as "Kampong Chicken Eating House". This one below upset (rightly so) a number of people, and it had to be taken down. The name of the bar in question? Aushwitz.

As reported in the Straits Times (19 Nov), the bar in Circular Road removed its signboard on 18 Nov after some people said they were offended by the similarity of its name -- Aushwitz -- to Auschwitz, the name associated with the infamous World War II German concentration camp in which more than a million people were killed.
The bar had opened last month (October). There has been no follow-up story about its new name. The ST report said the bar's name had in fact been registered as "Auschwitz" ie as in the actual name, but its Singaporean bar manager said he had intended to name the bar Aushwitz, and not as registered.

He said he picked “Aushwitz” from a list of pub names he found off the Internet. He said he did not immediately associate the name with Auschwitz, but he also said he knew that that was the name of a concentration camp. He then said: “I chose it because it was unique."

The ST report noted that a logo of the German beer brand Beck’s next to the bar’s name on the signboard made the association between the German camp and the bar’s name more glaring. Here's the abbreviated ST report on its breaking news page:

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_735679.html

Anyway, I'm glad that's one quirky signboard name that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Here's another signboard -- seen at Jurong Point -- which is merely quirky but not remotely controversial:

Next, you'll see this signboard in a number of the malls here:

But I wonder... what if by coincidence, a Hang Ten shop comes up next to this familiar shop already in the Orchard Road shopping belt:

The last sign put up here is not a signboard but an ad on a shopping mall's wall. There are not many words in it but it does seem quite a mouthful!...