Bowman Mayor’s April Fools Press Release Goes Viral

In Elbert County, Bowman Mayor Pete Gibbons’ April Fool’s press release is getting noticed in Atlanta and that’s just what he was hoping for.

Gibbons issued a press release Wednesday announcing the village of Bowman had struck a deal with soft drink giant Coca-Cola to build a bottling plant.

“A lot of folks have been generating publicity like this, such as the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office for their off color comments they make on Facebook in good fun, so I kind of wanted to go off of that”, explained Gibbons.

In the release, Gibbons said all of the streets in downtown Bowman would be renamed to reflect Coke’s presence and would be given names such as Minute Maid Lemonade Lane and Mello Yellow Mile.

“We would rename the city Coca-Cola City, and we would also rename some of our local landmarks and streets after different Coca-Cola products”, he said.

Gibbons then sent the presser to Charlie Harper at Peach Pundit and the rest, as they say, is history.  Since then, he has been contacted by news media from across Georgia and the country.

“I’ve been getting calls from everywhere from Greenville to Atlanta”, said Gibbons. “Just happy to be able to talk about the city of Bowman and promote some good things we have going on in our community.”

Gibbons said Thursday he was hoping his April Fool’s joke would go viral.

He said he will use whatever means he can to promote his town and he said this was a fun way to do it.

So far, however, he has not heard from Coke officials.

David Stephens, WSGC Radio, Elberton contributed to this story.