Selling Obama
During a quick trip to the corner store this evening on a quest for flour, I was assailed by Obama Mania. A shelf overflowing with bottled water and souvenir mugs summed it up quite nicely for me and I was compelled to take an exhausted (thus blurry) but amused snapshot with my cellphone which I sent to a few friends.
I have a feeling tomorrow is going to look a lot like this – Obama coffee cups, pins, toast, shirts, napkins, eggs, champagne (as seen in a MySpace ad), pizza, toothpaste and, yes, Obama water.
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. I’m just as excited as anyone who voted for Barack Obama but a part of me is horrified by the profuse use of his image to sell items from collector’s pieces to mundane frivolities such as water.
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It sounds like they juiced him and this is what they got.
sad. but people are hella desperate to make a buck these days.
remember all the disgusting 9/11 ephemera? [shudder]
[...] Obama bottled water?! Now that’s just going too far…. Earlier: Obama dildo. Share green LA girl These icons [...]
I’ve been trying to decide if this is a symptom of the economy or not. I can think of many other events that created opportunists selling equally odd wares, though never this pervasively.
I went to the Lakers victory parade in 2001, and my friend and I passed by a guy with a cooler and plain bottles of water shouting "Lakers water! Get your Lakers water!" We weren’t the only ones laughing.
It’s a sign of the times. People are desperate to make some money – and who are the people buying Obama water anyway?
Is this surprising? "Tacky" and "American capitalism" are practically synonyms. Still, that’s not quite as bad as the time I was in Vatican City and saw Jesus spoons, Jesus shot glasses, Jesus everything for sale. The worst offender was one of those shiny winky things that changes images when you turn it slightly. Yes, it was a Jesus shiny winky.
"The worst offender was one of those shiny winky things that changes images when you turn it slightly. Yes, it was a Jesus shiny winky."
Makes me think of "Born in East LA." And also "Dogma."