The annals of advertising

Over in West University Place, the high falutin' enclave completely surrounded by the City of Houston, a sign promoting "Sonoma," a luxury condo project, is causing a stir.

The signage suggests "bohemians, attorneys and hippies" may soon populate the 225 condos.

The local weekly paper, the West U Examiner-News, immediately went about gauging the community's reaction.

“The bohemians and hippies might not be so bad, if they don’t drive,” a caller from Southampton Place said. “But, this community simply can’t handle any more lawyers — with or without cars.” Perhaps fearing litigation from a future neighbor, the source asked not to be identified.

The condo developer, Randall Davis, cautioned the local paper not to read too much into the verbiage on the signage.

Of the allusion to "bohemians, attorneys and hippies," Davis told the paper: “it means whatever you want it to mean.”

We're not sure if he said this in a testy tone, but it's not hard to image he did.

He declined to comment on how many bohemians and hippies he thought could afford to live in Sonoma.

“I think advertising is about making people read a sign,” Davis said.

In this case, it worked.