Forget Kool-Aid, Obama's Selling OJ

Via the LA Times, who got it from TMZ. It's not clear whether this is a gag, but considering all the folks who want to cash in in Obama, led by Obama himself, it wouldn't surprise me. I figured he was the perfect pitchman for Kool-Aid, but apparently his adoring sycophants and the media drank it all.

We've written here before about the compulsion of Barack Obama's campaign and transition team and inauguration team to send out e-mails seemingly every day pleading for more money and more money, even weeks after he won the whole national election.

It's called donor fatigue.

Now, less than a week before his presidential inauguration to move into the White House with his family and mother-in-law, Obama has been exposed by the funny folks over at TMZ.com as someone using the presidency to sell orange juice with his daughter, Malia. They're even taking a vote over there.

Many other adverstisers are lining up as well. I'm surprised Obama doesn't trademark himself and ask for a cut.

There are Barack Obama Inauguration Hot Sauce, sold for $6.99 by the Kentucky company TooDarnHot.com; a “Hope and Change” necklace for $24 at Chico’s, the women’s clothing chain; and Barack Obama Topps trading cards priced at $1.99 per six-card pack.

There is Obama toilet paper, a tribute that features his likeness, sold for about $8 by Jeremy Rupke, who lives outside Toronto. His advertisement says, “This roll would look great on the desk of any Democrat.”

The rolls are “very popular right now!” Mr. Rupke wrote in an e-mail message. (He warned that the paper is just for show. The ink is toxic.)

There are more than three price points on Obama soap alone: $20 Hope on a Rope soap; $9.99 for Obama Bars declaring, “This is our moment to clean up America”; and $44.99 for an inauguration gift pack sold by the Obama Bar online store. The pack, with eight Mini-Bama bars, is going fast, said a co-owner of the store, Salah Boukadoum.

“We’re happy to see that Obama is already doing his part to stimulate the economy,” Mr. Boukadoum said.

Biggers brand are also getting in on the Obamapalooza.

President-elect Barack Obama decided not to sign corporate sponsors to help pay the projected $40 million cost of the official events around the Jan. 20 swearing in. So many marketers are working other avenues to get their brands before the millions of people who will attend the festivities or watch on TV. Among them are such well-known names as Pepsi, Ikea, T.G.I. Friday's and Dunkin' Donuts. From the airwaves to the streets of Washington, D.C., big-name marketers are trying to find ways to ride Inauguration Day enthusiasm.