Posted on 01/02/2009 5:10:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Peddlers are pushing Barack Obama everything, from now ubiquitous T-shirts and campaign buttons, to the slightly more risqué Obama-themed cigars and “Yes, We Can!” thong underwear.
But the president elect in your bathtub?
Proving that the power of political kitsch transcends even the lousiest of economic times, two Dallas businessmen are stimulating their own economics by peddling Obama soap. Specifically, “The Audacity of Soap,” complete with a wrapper featuring an image of the president-elect and the slogan, “This is our moment to clean up America.”
With scents ranging from “sea to shining cedar” and “blue state bluebonnet,” Obama bar proprietors Craig Tiritilli and Salah Boukadoum say the holidays are causing sales to spike, even as the national economy continues to languish.
Each bar sells for $9.99, with gift-wrapped holiday packages ranging from $16.99 to $39.99.
The partners say they donate a portion of each sale to the Yellow Ribbon Fund, a charity that provides assistance to families of injured U.S. military personnel. In all, they say they’d like to raise $50,000 for the charity.
“We caught election fever, we both supported Obama and we laughed about doing Obama soap a little bit,” said Mr. Boukadoum, who employed several dozen people as chief executive of Atrana Solutions, a financial transactions technology company, until selling it in 2005. “But it’s really good business. Obama is already helping to create jobs.”
Mr. Boukadoum estimates his fledgling outfit, Soap Hope, had sold about 1,000 Obama bars by mid-December alongside non-Obama branded products. Sales of holiday gift-wrapped packages of Obama bars, in quantities of three and eight, have been particularly brisk of late.
Orders have shipped to almost all of the 50 U.S. states, as well as several foreign nations, Mr. Boukadoum added. Soap Hope, located in Deep Ellum, is prepared to ship several thousand more bars immediately.
If nothing else, Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Neerman admires the Obama bar makers’ entrepreneurialism.
“If someone would have sold John McCain anti-aging cream a while back, maybe that would have worked pretty well,” Mr. Neerman joked.
He had a few lighthearted GOP-centric suggestions of his own: Sarah Palin lipstick, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs combs and, perhaps, bow ties in honor of the always dapper Texas Railroad Commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Williams.
As for politicizing soap, it isn’t an entirely new idea.
Bostonite Kavita Pillay, for one, sells George W. Bush-inspired bars dubbed “Scrubya,” as well as a newer cleansing product, “Soapbama.”
For Dallas resident John McKibben, however, he’ll stick with the locally made Obama bar.
He first discovered the product through a link on social networking site Facebook and bought four bars. Mr. McKibben, a 30-year-old leasing specialist who served as an Obama delegate this year to the Texas Democratic Party state convention, has since purchased six more, he said.
“Sure, it’s a novelty,” he said. “But it’s actually really good soap, too.”
Yeeouch that's pricy! Sell a few of those and you can buy Obama's senate seat.
Gag gifts.
Soap on a rope for inmates.
Which holiday would that be? Saint Che's Day?
I’m thinking of developing an Obama plunger.
I am sure that Obamatrons like Chris Mathews et. al. are washing body parts realy fast with Obama soap.
Obama?
Soap?
Dope on a rope?
They want to ‘clean up America’?? They want to clean the pockets of America, for themselves. Not the soap folks, but little o and the Chicago mobsters. I wouldn’t connect my product to those thugs if I were the soap folks.
Joey and Chandler from ‘Friends’ were discussing the merits and problems of sharing the same bar of soap.
Joey: “It’s soap! It’s self-cleaning!”
Chandler: “Fine. What’s the first thing YOU wash after the last think I’VE washed?”
LOL!
:) :)
I was thinking maybe the soap would be cast with an imprint of his face on the bar, Lots of possibility there.....
Damn, Dr. Pepper burns coming out the nose.......
Great minds think alike. Tyler Durden came to mind for me as well. Fight Club should be required reading.
How about Obama urinal targets?
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