So, this year, Obama’s been selling a lot of buttons, t-shirts, signs, and various other things imprinted with his logo. It’s a pretty nifty idea: run a store on your campaign website and file purchases as campaign donations. Your logo sees broader exposure, you get to report super-high donation totals each month, it’s easier for supporters who live in places without a campaign office or frequent campaign events to get campaign gear, people who would already have made donations get a little token for their trouble. Everybody wins.
But I wonder why it seems to take at least several weeks (and sometimes a few months) for orders to be shipped. I’m not complaining in a “where’s my stuff?!?” way, since Obama was gonna be getting my money even without a store on his website. I’m wondering why distributing campaign advertisements isn’t seen as more of a priority. It took my window sign almost 10 weeks to arrive, and I’ve lately been showered with apologetic emails telling me that my buttons, stickers, and t-shirts (ordered weeks ago) just might be shipping soon (though I’m not to expect them to arrive for a few weeks after they’ve shipped). That’s a lot of weeks that I could have been displaying Obama’s logo everywhere I went.
I suppose the cynical answer is that Obama doesn’t really care about people putting signs in their windows, handing out buttons to their friends, putting stickers on their cars, etc., and is really just after the money. That might be the case, though that would be a little surprising, given the amount of importance Obama’s campaign places on the ground game. The online store is supposed to generate revenue and increase campaign visibility, and I seriously doubt the Obama campaign would sacrifice one almost entirely in order to maximize the other.
Rather, it seems like they’re just being really cheap, which I can appreciate. I’m sure they want to maximize the “profit margin” of the Obama gear, and hiring cheaper, slower manufacturers and using cheaper, slower shipping options would certainly be part of that. But really, I’ll be surprised if my “first edition!!!!1!!1!!!” Obama/Biden stickers and buttons get here before election day, at which point their advertising potential will be moot, and the items themselves will either carry a neutral emotional impact or will be depressing reminders of a very bad day.
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