ObamaBurger or the Biden Burger?
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| Anthony D'Ambrosio |
I walked into my local butcher shop in Wilmington, Del., last week and there it was behind the glass counter -- the Biden Burger.
It's Bidenmania here in Delaware, with everything from Biden burgers to Biden childhood tours available.
But you've got to give The First State a bit of a break -- it's small, and it has a big self-esteem problem. So any Wilmingtonian that makes it big is going to get lots of attention here.
What's Chicago's excuse? A restaurant there called Juicy Wine Co. just introduced the ObamaBurger.
Seems like small businesses everywhere are well aware of a tried-and-true marketing strategy -- celebrity sells.
I don't mean to play down the pride these small business owners say they feel for their state superstars, but the bottom line is the bottom line, no?
"If it means we make a buck off of being very proud of Biden, so be it," said Anthony Melhem, executive chef at Haldas Brothers Meats, the butcher that came up with the Biden Burger.
Turns out those burgers are selling well: "When people come in they laugh at first, and then they say, 'I'll take three,'" Melhem explained.
It sounds yummy too.
"It's got three classic American ingredients," said Melhem, "American cheese, fried onions and bacon."
(Coincidentally, the ObamaBurger has bacon too.)
This from Juicy Wine's website:
"This isn't just any cheeseburger. Why? Well, other than being named after the next President of the United States, it's got bacon on it. (Proving Barack Obama is not Muslim. Not that there's anything wrong with that!)"
At the risk of being called partisan, I called John McCain's press officer to find out if any small businesses in Arizona have named products after the Republican presidential nominee. As of Thursday night no one from his campaign got back to me, which is understandable since the Republican National Convention was in progress. I called two of the restaurants in Arizona that McCain supposedly frequents and neither had a dish named after the senator.
I also called a restaurant in Wasilla, Alaska, that McCain's pick for vice president Sarah Palin reportedly frequents called Mat-Su Family Restaurant, and the head waitress there told me there was no dish named for Palin -- yet.
"The owners of the restaurant are big supporters of hers, so you never know," she said.
I did get an email from a pet products company called Bamboo Pet that told me they created a chew toy for dogs called "John McCanine." They also have a "Bark Obama" chew toy.
Having products that feature both candidates is probably a good idea for small business owners.
"When people name products after local celebrities, the people in the community embrace the new product quicker than they would if it was under another name. This works particularly well when a small business owner's clientele are all within that certain community, as they can all share in that proud feeling over the local celebrity. However, this can also backfire. If a celebrity's stock drops, so will the product," explained marketing expert Paul King.
Clearly, only one candidate can win this November's election, so the other's stock will inevitably fall.
Right after Hillary Clinton lost her bid to become the Democratic nominee, a gift shop I stopped into in Washington, D.C., was selling pink Hillary baseball caps for 90 percent off.
And the novelty of presidential products may wear off before the election is even over, and small businesses should beware: Consumers are already getting maxed out on the political dog-fight, and that could mean fewer sales for presidential chew toys and burgers.
