A lesson in money and marketing...

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This only works because it runs close to illegality. It's not the edginess (although that helps), it's that others won't play:

The manager at the McDonald’s on Northwest Yeon Avenue glanced at the money in the customer’s hand, a $2 bill that looked as if its edges had been dipped in blood. He grew tense, shook his head and turned away.

“Oh, no,” he says. “We’re not allowed to accept those.”

So where do you go? The bar won't take the bills, the bank won't take the bills - so it's back to the strip club that dipped them in red ink:

But despite these warnings, Casa Diablo keeps doling out the blood-red money. A WW reporter last week was still able to get a stack of the $2 bills from the bar.

Of course, the marketing would still work if the authorities smiled and let the bills circulate. But right now Casa Diablo are getting a double hit - promo from the red bills and a captured audience.

The strip club is simply gaming official sensitivity. More power to its elbow.

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"Prohibition always leads to supply and demand..." Jake Phillips, 15

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As this little unintended social experiment shows:

Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London, recently decided to implement a "water only" policy in a bid to improve health, pupils' concentration and, as a result, their grades.

However, some entrepreneurial kids have resorted to sneaking in the banned substances and selling them on to fellow pupils at "speakeasies", just like under Prohibition in the US, which ran from around 1920-1933. However, instead of alcohol, the desired goods are cola, lemonade, orangeade and energy drinks.

And the enterprising youngster explain why, too:

"...there is business potential now there's a gap in the market. Gangsters sold alcohol in America when that was banned. Prohibition always leads to supply and demand. That means anyone who sneaks it in can make a lot of money."

It's a shame that their teachers weren't so bright as to realise that this would be the exact result of their ban!

Even where it's pointed out the school's boss buries his head still further in the sand:

“Schools are responsible for showing young people that their own behaviour impacts on their health. We are extremely proud to be Camden’s first water-only school."

Seems nannying fussbuckets never learn!

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