Just in time for Valentine’s Day shopping, Amazon.com released a list of the 20 “most romantic” cities, based on sales data of romance novels, sex and relationship books, romantic comedy DVDs, Barry White CDs (seriously) and sexual wellness products (per capita) since Jan. 1, 2010. As your aunt, boss and childhood neighbor probably already shared on Facebook, Cincinnati made the list — we’re the 15th most romantic city, guys.
Lists like these are generally an attempt to quickly grab a mass audience with some kind of marketing motive. Positive or negative, when a city is mentioned on a national list, there’s a built-in readership that will talk about and share the story on social media. Do they spark “debate?” Sure. Are these useful, proactive conversations? Rarely. But hey, we’re No. 1 (or, in this case, 15)!
The Queen City landing on some arbitrary sales-based list is nothing new. For some reason, a 2010 Daily Beast list that dubs Cincy the "craziest" city is making its rounds again as of late. The criteria used to create this list include “psychiatrists per capita, stress, eccentricity and drinking levels,” all quantitative data, no doubt.
Here are a few other examples of how Cincinnati stacks up on recent national countdowns:
2011: Most Social via Mashable
2011: Most Bed Bugs via Orkin
2012: (One of the) Most Racist via Deadspin, whose love for Cincinnati knows no bounds.
2013: (10th) Most Polluted via Time
2013: Trendiest (on Twitter) via Washington Post
2013: (72nd) Most Livable City (but the only Ohio city on the list) via Livability.com
Did we miss any? Which pointless Cincinnati list is your favorite — or least fave?
