In German cities, “Milfs” are constantly driving around. Actually, they should be “Miles,” but the company’s name often falls victim to vandals. Will Miles do something about it?
At the beginning of the year, “milfs” hit the headlines. But this did not mean “hot mothers” and references to the film “American Pie”, but rental cars. The car-sharing company “Miles” offers an inviting target for pranksters with the large print on its vehicles. With one move, the harmless lettering, which actually alludes to the billing system (money per kilometer instead of money per minute), becomes a vulgar erotic term.
According to Duden, a “Milf” is a “sexually attractive, mature, experienced woman”. It becomes more vulgar when you look at the actual abbreviation, because “Milf” stands for “mom/mother I‘d llike to eu..”, meaning “mother I’d like to f…”. The term became known through films such as “American Pie”, but today it is mainly used in film titles on adult websites.
After the problem came into focus through numerous media reports, “Miles” received countless suggestions on how to stop the vandals. These included completely new representations of the font, different names or new vehicle stickers that are better protected against vandalism because they do not consist of individual letters. But nothing has changed in the pornographic street scene in the cities. Why?
Miles received “many suggestions” but changed nothing
On starIn response to the request, Miles explains: “We received many creative suggestions on how to reinterpret the acronym “MILFS” to have a positive meaning – for example “Mobility Is Love For Sharing” or My Individual Rental Vehicle. A spelling of “Miles” or “miles” (i.e. lowercase, editor’s note) was also suggested to avoid it being cut off.”
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But: “Despite these ideas, we are sticking to our current branding,” the company says. After all, rebranding involves a lot of effort and expense.
It will probably remain the case that Miles will continue to weigh up whether it is worth repairing the lettering in the future. If not, it will just stay as it is. However, the provider’s relaxed attitude should not be an incentive – at the beginning of the year Miles assured that every case of vandalism would be reported to the police if possible.
Source: Stern
I’m a recent graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. I started working as a news reporter for 24 Hours World about two years ago, and I’ve been writing articles ever since. My main focus is automotive news, but I’ve also written about politics, lifestyle, and entertainment.
