So, as history was made on Capitol Hill yesterday, a new sense of 'Hope' and 'Change' seemed to flood through the marketing community. (Ahem.)
Airtime in the Inauguration was selling at Superbowl prices. Web-streaming services were seeing records tumbling - by 3.30 yesterday afternoon (EST), CNN.com had served a staggering 21.3 million live video streams. And they weren't alone.
There was Obamania everywhere. In addition to the stuff on Amazon Alex talked about, my own personal favourites were those bastions of Americana,Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme who got in on the act after a pretty half-hearted facebook campaign (probably sounded like a great idea in the meeting though...).
So, Dunkin' Donuts had a 'limited edition' Inauguration doughnut, emblazoned with the stars and stripes. Krispy Kreme went one better, giving away a free 'Americano' coffee (see what they did there?) to anyone who came in and said 'Yes, we can!'. They even put his face on it in chocolate spirinkles, as pictured. More details here.
I also liked the Hennessy Limited Edition '44' cognac. Pretty bling. And already going for $60 on Ebay.
Obama will be waking up this morning as the new leader of the free world, with a global financial meltdown, two disastrous and seemingly intractable wars, and a bloodbath in Gaza on his list of things to fix. He must now realise he is also carrying the hopes and dreams of marketers across the world.
Surely too much of a burden for one man?
-- Toby
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