The gift gap
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008 2:23 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Jim Popkin
Exit polls don't show this one. We've had the Bubba Gap. The Women Gap. And now comes the "Gift Gap." At political gift stores across America, Barack Obama schlock is outselling John McCain schlock at least five to one, according to interviews NBC News conducted with gift-shop retailers and t-shirt manufacturers.
That would mean that five times as many Obama t-shirts are on the streets…five times as many Obama bumper stickers are junking up cars…and five times as many Obama bobble heads are wiggling on desks across America.
At the Capital Noveltees manufacturing plant in Washington, DC, for example, demand for Obama gift items is through the roof. The firm, a major supplier to retailers nationwide, has sold 54,028 pro-Obama t-shirts since March. During that same period, the company has sold only 5,979 pro-McCain t-shirts, said company owner Susan Benovitz.
"It's not that we're favoring one candidate over another," Benovitz said. "I just know how fast the re-orders come in for Obama."
Is this a sign of an enthusiasm gap, as perhaps the Obama campaign would have you believe? Not so fast, says Ira Teinowitz, the Washington Bureau Chief for Advertising Age. Since Obama is so popular with Gen Facebook, young voters likely skew the sales. “It’s logical to assume that young people are more likely to wear T-shirts than old [folks],” Teinowitz said. “If you look at the cool versus non-cool aspect of this, McCain isn’t exactly cool” to wear on a faded t-shirt, he added.
The McCain campaign reacted to the "doomsday" news with characteristic humor. Is this gift-buying discrepancy an omen of a campaign in trouble, we queried in an email?
"Al Gore and John Kerry sold a lot of t-shirts too," McCain spokesman Joe Pounder replied.
For more on this -- and actual serious topics -- check out the NBC News Deep Background blog.