"9/11s! Get yer 9/11s! $9.11 each, 2 for $20!"
If you thought Giuliani's cashing in on 9/11 could not go any lower, guess again. Giuliani's newest approach to retail politics: sell 9/11, cheap.
Trying to innovate creatively within the broad them of the campaign, a few volunteers came up with an idea for a 9/11- themed house party where attendees are asked to contribute $9.11 to the Giuliani campaign. That's right America. For less than the price of a movie ticket, and twice the price of a box of Thin Mints, Rudy Giuliani will sell you your very own piece of 9/11. And if you come back tomorrow, he'll sell it to you all over again.
And rather than be proud of their volunteers for following Giuliani's lead, the campaign has repudiated the 9/11 house party idea. But, wait. All that moral posturing against their volunteers has not stop the Giuliani campaign from continuing to sell 9/11 quicker than cheap pop songs on iTunes.
For example, on their campaign page titled "Why Rudy?", the Giuliani team positions a prominent quote about 'September 11' right next to a giant red button shouting 'CONTRIBUTE' and 'DONATE':
Of course, the big red circle and arrow are not on that page, but they do not need to be. Rudy Giuliani spends so much time asking for money after claiming that he is the big hero of 9/11, the red arrow between 'September 11' and 'donate' is permanently etched in the minds of Giuliani's supporters.
But wait--we're shocked, SHOCKED to discover that someone is trying to sell 9/11 to raise money for our campaign!
Yeahright.
The fact is, the price of 9/11 has dipped below $10 on the Giuliani campaign for the same reason that the price of ball point pens once dropped precipitously--innovation and competition in the market place. Giuliani has literally turned 9/11 into a retail good for sale, flooded the campaign market with it, and now new competitors have arrived. Where once it cost thousands of dollars to buy 9/11 from Rudy, not anyone can get it for less than $10. How low can the price of 9/11 go in the Giuliani campaign? At this rate, we can expect to see 9/11 campaign buttons on sale ten for a dollar by mid-Winter.
But for now, the price is just under $10.
It is not surprising that Giuliani campaign volunteers are looking for innovative new ways to use the strategy pushed by their candidate. The house party is simply a retail version of Giuliani's high-dollar 9/11-for-cash events. If anything, volunteers look for ways to advance the goals and themes set by the campaign, and Giuliani's disingenuous disavowals of his volunteers' creativity smacks of cynicism and deceit.
There may come a day when Republican candidates stop trying to cash in on 9/11, but Rudy Giuliani is making sure that day does not come anytime soon, if at all. And now he as a happy team of volunteers who are ready and willing to help him reduce 9/11 down to the value of a few large bags of Doritos®.
And if you're interested in buying some 9/11 from their campaign there's really no need to rush--when it comes to Giuliani selling 9/11, supplies are endless.
(cross-posted from Frameshop)