A town in New Zealand is quite proud of its oversized doughnut sculpture (who wouldn’t be!), but they’re having great difficulty finding a paint that won’t fail. In fact, the town has been forced to repaint their prized tourist attraction 4 times in 3 years at a cost of $18,000.

The donut was erected in Springfield, New Zealand in 2007 to promote “The Simpsons” movie, one of many doughnuts the movie promoters erected in towns called Springfield (where the Simpsons live, of course).

The original donuts were not built to last; rather, they were simply viewed as 6-week movie promotions. But the residents of Springfield, New Zealand were so taken with their doughnut that they left it up…until someone burned it down in 2009. (Mr. Burns, perhaps? Or Nelson?)

Oddly enough, sadly enough, the town replaced the burned donut with a tractor tire while town leaders decided on a more permanent replacement. Apparently government is slow everywhere, because three years later the town finally unveiled the new doughnut in 2012, made of concrete.

There’s no word on how the donut was painted in 2012, but apparently things were fine until 2020, when it required repainting. That’s when the cavalcade of paint failures began, resulting in three additional repaints in three years.

Apparently town leaders have had enough and are now demanding a better paint plan.

"You can get (the paint) but you can’t just go and buy them off the shelf," said one townsperson. "These paints are available from specialist paint suppliers who know their stuff and the types of paints that will stand up to the rigors of life in Springfield."

Said another concerned citizen: “The paint they put on it doesn’t work and it lasts three months. It’s a bit sad really.” More than sad, we would say.

[While APC would normally send a reporter to gather details on exactly why the paint failed, our Novelty Sculpture Coatings Correspondent is already busy chasing down a story in Bolivia. (That’s a joke, of course. APC hasn’t had a Novelty Sculpture Coatings Correspondent for several years now.)]

Town council operations manager Jonathan Crawford said "The nature of the donut and its construction presents challenges for maintenance, and we have reviewed the whole process around painting the donut, including preparation, epoxy and paint products, to put together a plan for repainting the donut this financial year.”