Greetings from Miracle Whip, Florida! A small town in Florida, formerly known as Mayo, has officially changed its name to Miracle Whip — well, for a few days at least. On Saturday, August 25th, the mayor of Mayo informed her fewer than 1,500 constituents that they were Mayo no more. “We aren’t going to be boring Mayo anymore,” Mayor Ann Murphy declared to The Associated Press. “We are going to be Miracle Whip!”
Um, wait. Are we missing something?
Town officials teamed up with the Kraft Heinz company to play a little prank on the citizens of Mayo. According to the AP via local news outlet WCTV, the mayonnaise alternative’s parent company helped Mayo electives change all of Mayo’s signage to read “Miracle Whip.” Even the town’s water tower was updated.
“Bland, unexciting, and boring might be how we at Miracle Whip would describe mayonnaise, but certainly not the good people of Mayo, Florida,” Miracle Whip’s brand director Molly White said in a statement to MyRecipes.com. “We believe no town should live under the shadow of such an uninspiring moniker, which is why we’re happy to lend our name to the town and help put Miracle Whip, Florida on the map.” (BTW, Mayo, Florida is named after confederate colonel James Mayo. Not mayonnaise. But whatever.)
Miracle Whip even sent a camera crew to capture residents’ reactions. Surprisingly, most were pretty positive.
BREAKING NEWS: Mayo removed from a small town in Florida. Here's why. #NoMoreMayo pic.twitter.com/zkqXZqKSij
— Miracle Whip (@MiracleWhip) August 25, 2018
That’s probably because most Mayo residents already had an inkling that they were being punked. “Everybody knows everybody,” town clerk Linda Cone told the AP. “It’s been kind of difficult to keep everything under wraps.”
Although the Miracle Whip prank was supposed to be all in good fun, some citizens weren’t happy about town officials going behind their backs. The secret planning sessions between Mayo officials and Miracle Whip actually violate Florida’s Sunshine Law, which states that all town meetings should be open to the public, open-government advocate Barbara Petersen told the AP.
But come on, guys. It’s funny!
Nothing but love for our tangy Mayor Ann Murphy 💖 #NoMoreMayo #FloridaPrimary pic.twitter.com/adP1VRcMJJ
— Miracle Whip (@MiracleWhip) August 28, 2018
And because the town of Mayo has been such a good sport throughout this entire comedic prank, Kraft Heinz will gift Mayo between $15,000 and $25,000 to be put toward city beautification projects.
The little town of Mayo — ahem, Miracle Whip — is getting a lot of publicity thanks to the prank. After all, they clearly know a good sandwich spread when they taste one.
