Arriving at Union Station for the Inauguration I noted the first of what was to be a big Pepsi presence: a beautiful but blatant co-option of the Obama campaign.

I mean what has Pepsi (a mediocre tasting brown drink with no nutritional content and is probably bad for you) got to do with hope? Pepsi even uses the Obama line ‘Yes We Can’ on promos, string back packs and bus shelters.

OK, in that case I get it. Pepsi comes in cans.

Hope Hope Hope

The design of the Pepsi campaign is flawless, rich in color (created by TBWA Chiat Day which also uses Obama family look-alikes in their Tropicana ads) and incorporates the new more fluid red/white/blue ’smiley’ Pepsi logo, evolved by Peter Arnell (He denies he was inspired by the optimism of Obama. He designs in a vacuum).

Did anyone from either agency happen to mention to Pepsico that their campaign is built on ‘borrowed interest’ and more than just a little ‘inspired’ by Obama’s campaign and therefore might just a tad deceiving or confusing to the consumer? Do you even see the name Pepsi in the photo above?

Did I say, it is really beautiful. OK. Does anyone care about the co-option anyhow? Probably not President Obama: Whatever works.

Shopping on Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont today a store called Dragonfly is selling large rhinestone pins each one spells out a word in all capitol letters – ‘Dream’, ‘Hope’, ‘Imagine’.

Down the street, the window of Beadniks (a store that feels right in this Berkeley of the East) commands us to do something we have been very reluctant – I would say scared – to do for the last 8 years: to believe. I’m predicting that, at this moment, Brattleboro is on the crest of a new wave – one of optimism: A message that will be decorate the windows and stores of shopping streets of small town and big city America this holiday season.

We can now look forward to the possibility of a positive future, because we have a leader we believe can take us there; a man whose lead we can follow with confidence.

I say to the woman selling the rhinestone pins, “If they make a pin that says ‘Obama’, they will fly right off the shelves.” She agrees and we smile broadly. I say “I hope you do well this season.” She wishes me a very happy holiday. As I do you.

Note: check out Macy’s Believe Meter (Imagine, Wish, Dream, Believe) online. Its all about whether you believe in the spirit of Christmas (e.g. consumerism?). Well, do you?

Suddenly we have a black president elect who is anything but a screw up. And blacks are lifted up by the election of this great man, Barack Obama. He gets his hair cut once a week unlike Hancock who can’t manage to shave (he’s homeless). Obama wants his brothers to pull up their pants (ie stop complaining and make something of yourself) a message that can only come from another brother. The low-riding pant look came from prison where belts are not allowed.

In mid October, these shirts were hanging in a window in Fulton Mall – the world famous, predominantly black, Brooklyn shopping area. The tee shirt on left shows Martin Luther King Jr and Barack Obama and says “Change: The Dream We Can believe In. The one on the right says ‘Pull up your pants brother. You are disrespecting the father that (sic) made you the mother who bore you and the God who created you. The whole world is laughing.”

This tee shirt, with an image of Malcolm X, says emphatically “You’ve been tricked brotha You are not a nigga!!! Pull your pants up!!”

African Americans were branded upon entry to our country until the latter part of the 19th century, considered only 50% human. This fact and the color of their skin makes this race unique in America. If the new president (not descended from slaves) were stamped with Muslim or Native American or Jewish or any other cultural, religious or racial stereotype the response would not be the same because, if someone coming towards you is black you know it 50 feet away. I live near downtown Brooklyn. Many of my neighbors and friends are African American and many have bigger houses than I do. Have achieved more than I have. None of them speak in black slang, wear low riders nor are they screw ups. But this is not the experience of Americans who have no exposure to African Americans except through Rap, television or films or other forms of entertainment, the loudest most attention-getting of which are still too often reminiscent of the black minstrels (apologies to Oprah, Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Quincy Jones). One of Barack Obama’s greatest roles may be to help eliminate the acceptability of the black goof-up as the main icon of black America.

I’ll bet there has been a spike in sales of those Pull Up Your Pants tee shirts at the Fulton Mall since the election. I’ll go back and check and let you know. Until then, what do you think about all this?