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The Broadway naming business: Urinetown's branding strategy started out innocently enough.

NEW YORK, June 2, 2002. The hottest show on Broadway this season has a splendid title that plays against all expectations: Urinetown. Here's an article from yesterday's New York Times about the title and it's sketchy history:

It is a title so unsavory that its creators say they chose it long ago as a kind of inoculation against high expectations, as a means of deflecting any pressure that might be brought on them to make it a success. "We thought that with a name like 'Urinetown' there'd be no chance of having to show it to our family and friends," said Greg Kotis, the author of the book and lyrics.

...On the Tony Awards telecast [tonight], the title will be treated like any other. "The determination of taste falls within our minds," said Gary Smith, the executive producer of the [CBS] broadcast. "I will agree and admit that the first time you heard there's a show coming in called 'Urinetown,' you went, 'Oh my goodness.' But you know what happens with titles, they become part of our vocabulary. By now, it's part of our lexicon."

This is a great example of the fact that names and brands do not live in a vacuum, but are surrounded by a rich context that can even, in cases like this, turn a "bad" name into a "good" thing. Indeed, if you had asked a focus group to rank ten potential show titles before this show debuted, "Urinetown" would have likely scored dead last. Now, however, this unsavory name has become "part of our lexicon," part of the intrigue behind the show, and probably a large part of its success.