Americans clamoring for all things Obama
Entrepreneurs are cashing in as items featuring president-elect Barak Obama have become a sales phenomenon.
Much as Barack Obama has kindled unprecedented interest in presidential politics, so too has he prompted a flood of merchandise, collectibles, television deals and book contracts.
Presidents have always inspired such capitalism. But marketing experts say the historic nature of this election and the strong brand that the Illinois senator's campaign cultivated have sparked incredible demand for all things Obama.
"It's the biggest thing for publishing since Harry Potter," said Dermot McEvoy, a senior editor at Publishers Weekly, an industry trade journal.
The effects of Obamamania are trickling down. Vendors have taken to the streets and the Internet to sell Obama-themed T-shirts, buttons, bobblehead dolls, coffee mugs, wine bottles, magnets, greeting cards, neon signs, mobile phones and framed art prints. Despite worries about the economy, consumers are snapping them up.
"This is phenomenal -- I've never seen anything like it in my life," said Edward Robert El, 64, a street vendor in downtown Los Angeles. He sold more than 3,000 buttons featuring photos of Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
He was selling the buttons, which cost him 80 cents apiece, for $3 on Friday outside the Los Angeles Times, where crowds were lined up seeking copies of the Nov. 5 edition. The Times is one of many newspapers nationwide that sold out their usual press run and are now looking to cash in by selling commemorative copies.
There are at least nine books about the president-elect and the 2008 campaign coming out in the next few months, McEvoy said, including "The Obama Menu: Dinners With Barack Obama" and "Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme."
Some journalists covering the campaign have struck deals for books about Obama, including Newsweek magazine White House correspondent Richard Wolffe and Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin, and more are expected.
PublicAffairs, a New York publishing house that focuses on political books, will release "A Long Time Coming: The Historic, Combative, Expensive and Inspiring 2008 Election and the Victory of Barack Obama," by Evan Thomas and the staff of Newsweek, and will reprint a paperback version of a book co-written by Rahm Emanuel, Obama's new chief of staff.
"People are interested in Obama and his victory in a distinctly unusual way," PublicAffairs founder Peter Osnos said.
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