SFRJ ZA POČETNIKE - Muška voda

"Men’s Water - Women’s Joy", the alleged aphrodisiac that even attracted world travelers to Kladanj More than half a century ago, the advertising slogan “Men’s Water, Women’s Joy” attracted hundreds of men from all over Yugoslavia and abroad to embark on a journey to Kladanj, a small town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not far from there, in the heart of Konjuh Mountain, surrounded by tall conifers and dense forest, lies a spring of clear water that has been believed for ages to have healing properties. Then, in the sixties of the 20th century, it was attributed with almost magical powers to men's potency, as some locals were reportedly able to have children well into old age. That period was called the Kladanj boom; Arabs and foreigners from all over Europe also came. Suddenly, all the media was writing about it: all other advantages of the water were secondary, but male vitality was what attracted people. The advertising hit at the right time. While in 1968 the world was shaken by sexual and hippie revolutions, and students in Belgrade were demanding social democratization, many Yugoslavs simply longed to be the best lovers they could be. Though no scientific evidence proved its aphrodisiac effects, the media called Kladanj “Sexyville,” and water from 700 meters above sea level was dubbed “Sex Wasser” or "Aqua Vita Casanova" for foreign markets. Young men, old men, those ready to marry, and those on the verge of divorce—all kinds of men’s arrived at Konjuh, as recorded by the then Belgrade Television in the revolutionary year of 1968. They would bring plastic balloons, bottles wrapped in reeds, and some even with tankers, to take home a “Bosnian Viagra.” After medical analyses, it was decided that Men’s Water would be packaged in green, square bottles of half a liter, almost resembling raki bottles, and branded so it could reach homes across the country and around the world.