A mug with Donald Trump’s mugshot, a “Joe Biden makes me cry” baby bodysuit, an “anti-woke” leather jacket… The 2024 US presidential candidates are offering a collection of “goodies”, which pay big dividends for their campaigns.
In less than a week, the campaign team of Donald Trump, candidate for the Republican primaries, boasts of having raised nearly 3 million dollars thanks to the sale of products derived from the already famous “mug shot” of the former leader in Georgia.
The septuagenarian Republican, known to be a communication ace, had already marked the last two presidential elections by marketing his red caps “Make America Great Again” – thanks to which his supporters are still recognized today across the United States.
The sale of these “goodies” represents an interesting manna for the billionaire as for his rivals, in a country where electoral campaigns are made with billions of dollars.
The 2020 election was the most expensive in US history, and the 2024 election could unsurprisingly top that record.
The t-shirts, posters and pins offered by the candidates also allow “to involve their supporters much more”, who become a kind of “walking billboards” for their campaigns, note to AFP Peter Loge, of the george washington university.
Supporters of Joe Biden, octogenarian president candidate for his re-election, can thus obtain a crop top, a top revealing the lower belly, at 32 dollars with “Dark Brandon” – a kind of virtual alias of the leader with the laser look — a popular “meme” in the Democratic camp.
The history of campaign “goodies” is closely linked to that of democracy in America: “GW” pins were already distributed for the election of the first president, George Washington, in 1789.
“It started with posters and pins, made by the supporters” of the candidates, underlines Jon Grinspan, curator in charge of political history at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.
Then “in the 20th century, the parties took hold of the concept and we saw a lot of rather light and wacky products arrive”, says the expert to AFP.
Kitchen gloves for Mitt Romney, anti-Bush condoms… Political parties compete for originality in their by-products which become new sources of financing.
A candidate could never finance his campaign by the sole sale of these goods.
But these products, often a little crazy, give politicians the opportunity to exist in a world punctuated by viral moments and little phrases that go around social networks, argues Professor Peter Loge.
“Everything in politics is going faster today,” he analyzes. “And it’s so easy and cheap to produce things.”
Like when Nikki Haley, the only woman in the race for the Republican nomination, declined in a few hours t-shirts, stickers and posters in response to a comment from a CNN presenter, who felt that the candidate in her fifties was ” more in the prime of life”.
Or when, in October 2020, a fly landed on the white hair of Donald Trump’s Vice President, Mike Pence, during a televised debate — a scene that had been the centerpiece of Joe Biden’s campaign , then Democratic candidate for the White House.
The Democrat’s campaign team immediately put “Truth over Flies” fly swatters on sale for $10 each, raising some $350,000 in 24 hours.
“That’s what we Americans do,” laughs Professor Peter Loge. “We always invent new absurd ways to make money… including with the presidential function”.
02/09/2023 09:14:13 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
