As I stood in the mall at 5am on Tuesday I noticed two things about the crowd surrounding me. The first was the excitement and joy that was on nearly everyone’s faces despite the frigid weather. Barack Obama had become a celebrity of the people during his road to the Presidency and the people were happy and grateful for him. The second thing I noticed about the crowd that morning was that nearly everyone was wearing something with the name Obama appearing on it. Shirts, pins, hats, signs, key chains were all being sold and worn this weekend, which means that the corporation heads also wore smiles on their faces, whether they are Obama supporters or not. The amount of Obama memorabilia seen in the crowd was incredible and therefore so must be the profits of the corporations.
Some people would go as far as to say that the corporations are exploiting the popularity of Obama to put money in their pockets but I disagree. The American people love Obama so corporations deliver him, by pasting his face all over their products, which is just good marketing. An example of a corporation exploiting the Obama popularity would have been the raising of the Metro fare on Tuesday the 20th, which as far as I know did not occur.
Along with the selling of Obama products however, was the non-profit side of the corporations and the mass distribution of free items. The two major items in my mind were the American flags being handed out at the inauguration ceremony and the paper Metro tickets being issued with Obama’s face imprinted on them. Both of these items were used by the corporations to commemorate the weekend but they were free. The American flags were given out to the crowd prior to the ceremony and the paper Metro tickets could be purchased at anytime this weekend for no additional charge. Neither served as a profit making item and were collected simply so that a person could remember the experience and excitement of the weekend.
