In the first installment of this topic I talked about legal fees assessed birthers bringing frivolous lawsuits. This time I present a commercial example.
Donald Trump is a well-known birther, who doubled down with a highly-publicized pre-election offer to donate $5 million to charity if Obama released some college records that likely don’t still exist. Whether universally true or not, birtherism is associated with racism in much of the public mind, and Donald Trump’s birther antics triggered a grass roots effort to remove Trump-labeled merchandise from Macy’s department stores. Macy’s is standing by Trump who frequently appears in its advertising, even though a “Dump Trump” petition targeting Macy’s stands at 674,117 as of this writing.
YouGov’s BrandIndex shows a precipitous drop in loyalty rating for Macy’s among women, compared to its competitors. Ted Marzilli, speaking for the opinion research web site wrote:
Petitions and protests against Donald Trump’s strong association with Macy’s, including his clothing line and frequent advertising appearances, seem to have taken a toll on Macy’s Recommend score amongst US women.
This is not a good thing around Christmas time. The stupid, it costs.
Read more:
Isn’t the point of aligning your brand with a celebrity supposed to be that you associate your brand’s image with the celebrity’s positive public image? Sorta defeats the purpose if your celebrity is a widely disparaged douchebag.
The poetic justice is that while the birfers’ dream of “punishing everyone pro-Obama by boycotting their products” will not be felt by any company because of the low birfer numbers, the cost of being even remotely associated with birferism is several orders of magnitude higher.
It always cracked me up when a birfer wrote “let’s all boycott their products, then they’ll go bankrupt, that’ll teach ’em”. Kinda like trying to bring down the Great Wall of China by throwing single grains of sand, and 100 per day. 😉
I wouldn’t be surprised if any anti-Trump rally would easily get more people on the streets than birthers have made Internet postings over the last four years (which may be close to one million).
@Thrifty – I hope you do not mind, but I think from now on I will reference Donald Trump as Donald Trump {WDD}, or maybe Donald Trump {WDDb}. It just seems to fit.
And the typical, idiotic birther twaddle proving WND causes brain damage oozes on:
(from the comments) Arnie • a day ago −
“Any politician who refuses to be vetted for office should be forceably removed from office. No one needs a ‘Trojan Horse’ in the most powerful office in a Democracy. How many millions of dollars did Obama pay his professional lawyers to keep his entire background hidden (except for the extreme leftist DNC)?
Obama should ‘proud as punch’ to proudly prove that he is eligible for anything but returned to his native Kenya. At least his grandmother didn’t lie when she said that OHB was born in front of her in a Kenyan facility.”
(http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/dangers-donald-145491)
OHB?
I told my wife we should boycott Macy’s because of Trump. She asked me what we had bought there in the last 5 years. I said, “Nothing. But I am going to buy even less in the next 5”
Here’s one for the cost of birferism. Today Corsi has posted an unusually sane article (granted, I only skimmed it). Sane, but still whiny rationalization of the fail of rMoney:
Romney foiled by computers, consultants?
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/romney-foiled-by-computers-consultants/
The readership he and WND have so earnestly been grooming (deluding) are having none of it. The comments are full of the usual …
“MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD!!!!”
“INELGIBLE MOOZLIM KENYAN SOSHALUST!”
“WELFARE BABIES VOTED IN SANTA CLAUS!” ***
WND will never be able to sell a serious bit of journalism again.
That said, all my experience in corporate America tells me that his speculation (and it is speculation, as usual Corsi provides no specifics), a tale of a hapless management being suckered in by slick salesman pushing fly-by-night consultants, rings very probable.
Corsi’s argument is not doing any good to rehabilitate rMoney or the GOP. If they can’t manage a campaign, why trust them with the country? He seems to be bemoaning them, while at the same time, throwing them under the bus. Easy to do from the sidelines!
_____
*** My paraphrasing.
Frm HuffPo:
“Just like any other visitor to the White House, Romney had to provide his Social Security number, birth date and other personal information to gain access to the grounds.”
Keep a lookout for Birther heads exploding over THAT^^^.
rMoney had to show his papers??? Any tax returns involved LOL
I wonder if birtherism runs in Trump’s family.
His son, Donald Trump, Jr, is in the same business and already worth over $150 mil.
But he seems to have kept his mouth shut and so may be smarter than his old man.
I probably didn’t spend more than a few thousand dollars a year at Macy’s (school clothes, makeup, skirts, dress shirts for my husband, shoes, gifts, bedding, and kitchen stuff) before joining the boycott, so my opinion may not be worth much, but I’m doing my best to keep friends out of there too. Two shopping trips with girlfriends were rerouted to other stores, and I’ve got two people to join the boycott with me. Glad to know Macy’s doesn’t need my money anymore.
Christmas shopping is done, and none of it went to Macy’s. I’m just doing what Macy’s CMO said I should do last week, voting on whether or not I support them. I do not.
From http://www.businessinsider.com/macys-cmo-heres-why-we-stuck-with-trump-2012-11#ixzz2DqxrBf00
Here is an article about Trump’s reaction to the poll Dr. Conspiracy mentions:
http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/11/30/15573931-trump-calls-drop-in-popularity-survey-total-bull#comments
Trump calls it “total bull@!$%#”.
Read the comments, though. People legitimately dislike Donald Trump quite a bit, it seems. I think the boycott petitioner may have really struck a nerve here. People never paid attention to Trump’s connection to Macy’s one way or the other, but now that they have, they’re angry, they don’t like it, and it is starting to show.