Media "Merchandizing The Moment, Packaging A President-Elect For Profit"

Washington Post:

Perhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story." Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign.

Perhaps it was the Newsweek commemorative issue -- "Obama's American Dream" -- filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature. Or the Time cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder.

Are the media capable of merchandizing the moment, packaging a president-elect for profit? Yes, they are.

What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[luvangelHussein330]

11:29 AM on 11/18/2008

I've already bought a few magainze I would have never bought before just for the cover. And like a crazy person I've been putting the covers in an album

[ThePeacemakers]

11:04 PM on 11/17/2008

GM and Ford need to scrape together every penny they can find and come out with the Obamamobile before the end of the year.

[yvonne61]

05:42 PM on 11/17/2008

I HAVE BEEN COLLECT THIS ON OBAMA FOR 20 MONTH FROM MAGANIZES, STICKERS, PINS AND BOOKS THEY WILL BE WORTH MONEY I DAY.

[Gifts]

05:34 PM on 11/17/2008

Over hype Obama Drama, did anyone catch Oprah today, sad her show use to appeal to all women. I had to turn it off when she started using the little children to promote Obama. YUK!

[Melissa]

08:07 PM on 11/17/2008

This whole media thing is going to come crashing down. It is only a matter of time. I stopped watching Oprah months ago. I'm hoping he makes her an ambassador to some foreign country for the next 4 years.

[larry278]

04:12 PM on 11/17/2008

Larry Flynt is going to give W some recognition; he's shopping a special to remember W's 8 years in the White House with the working title of "Camel[toe]lout". Mr Flynt is going all out with the graphics. He's trying to get Ann Coulter or W's mom, Barbra, for a center fold. W may need the money for lawyers. The may allow Mr Flynt to sign W's mom for a center fold.

[marymansour]

01:52 PM on 11/17/2008

I have never engaged in this sort of thing before but quite frankly, with this miraculous election, I am ready to buy some of the memorabilia. I would dearly love to own a DVD of election night 2008. I have bought several election issues of various magazines. I am sixty-nine years old and am so thrilled about this new President of ours, I am game for a bit of commemorative indulgence.

[harriettubman]

02:02 PM on 11/17/2008

Me and my sister said this is HISTORY. We've bought a few magazines with Obama's face on its cover. I normally don't purchase anything but history making issues, so I don't have a lot.

[4wehttam]

03:10 PM on 11/17/2008

Yeah, I'm not into buying collectible items, but I bought the Newsweek commemorative issue, I ordered the NBC DVD and waiting for a full fledged book about the '08 campaign after the inauguration.

[qxav949]

01:30 PM on 11/17/2008

In the local inner city communities throughout boroughs of New York City - Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx in particular - there is now a vibrant trade of Obama portraits (with or without frames) and Obama calendars. I believe that this is now a common phenomenon across the country, especially in Obama-won states. It seems that in some small way, Mr. Obama has ignited a cottage industry without any federal funding or weilding of federal power. Imagine what can be achieved with the employment situation once he assumes control of both.

[littlepuffycloud]

12:52 PM on 11/17/2008

The worst is the selling of some kind of Obama dollar or something on television...I thought it was a commemorative plate, but nope, it's a coin of some sort all gussied up and painted. Sick.

[JMBrodie]

04:32 PM on 11/17/2008

They do that all the time. No big deal.

[swift goat pet for truth]

10:40 AM on 11/17/2008

See?

O is helping the economy already!

[iceage7]

11:42 AM on 11/17/2008

LOL!!

[Yalegirl03]

11:57 AM on 11/17/2008

Great line! And I don't mind it one bit.