It looks like another company has added Obama to its marketing scheme. After posting earlier about the Pepsi dynasty with all its subsidiaries being in the tank with Obama, now Ben & Jerry's falls in line. The ice cream producer has renamed its butter pecan ice cream "Yes, Pecan!", an obvious take-off of Obama's slogan of "Yes, we can!" The flavor is described as being an "inspirational blend of amber waves of buttery ice cream with roasted non-partican pecans."In its usual philanthropic vein, proceeds from January sales will be donated to Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit political advocacy group.
I wonder what Obama thinks of all the marketing that is going on with his name and image. First, there were the commemorative coins being sold the very day after his election. Katherine Tandler of KansasCity.com wrote about Obama being a hot ticket and sales of his memorabilia are setting records.
Among food products alone, there are hot sauce, energy drinks, wine, mini chocolate Obama heads and inaugural blends of tea and coffee. There's even Obama's face grilled onto a piece of toast, a reference to the famous grilled cheese sandwich bearing a Virgin Mary image that sold on eBay for $28,000 in 2004.For the table, there are glow-in-the-dark Obama wine-stoppers. For Republicans and die-hard Clintonians: pinatas shaped like Obama's head.
Plush dolls, paper dolls and nesting dolls abound. There's Obama on a pseudo-Greek coin. Even Obama on a cologne bottle.
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The current level of political commerce in all things Obama is unprecedented Bird said, and while that may be good for vendors, it could be bad news for collectors.
"If there's a lot of it, the rarity value will work against you in the marketplace of the future," Bird said.
Susan Kolodziejczyk, a shopper at Political Americana, wasn't buying it.
"These aren't gifts; they're memories," she said. "A piece of history."
"They're memories." Gag. I bet she's got a ton of Precious Moments memorabilia throughout her house.
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