Wednesday, April 22, 2009

BaRock Star

We at marketmambo never tire in pursuit of our mission to watch over the dance between marketers and consumers, and are never satisfied with noting only "what" happened, without some attempt at determining the "why".

That is, until now.

We recently noticed news coverage of a decision by Walgreens to remove Chia Obamas from their shelves in Chicago and Tampa. The company decided that the figurine was "inapproriate" after receiving complaints that it's green sprouting Afro was racist.

Undeterred, Joseph Pedott, head of Joseph Marketing and founder of Chia Pets, has begun negotiations with other retailers. Mr. Pedott expects Chia Obama to be his company's biggest seller and promises retailers that "As soon as they can take them, we'll send them".

Most bloggers we've come across are spouting indignation over the sprouting ceramic. Maybe this is just the outcome we should expect for the most intensively marketed president in US history.

For those of you who lack the patience to wait for a Chia Obama in a local store, please go to Amazon.com where you can get one for your own for less than $20. Better yet, go directly to chiaobama.com where you can choose between the "Happy" and "Determined" versions. We found the site's parody of presidential rhetoric to be an interesting attempt to balance self-promotion and satire.

And we leave it to you, dear readers, to decipher the cause and implications of Chia Obama.

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