Brett Banter

The garment company put the billboard up on Wednesday showing President Obama wearing what has quicky been dubbed "The Obama Jacket". While it's a legitimate photo taken during Obama's visit to the Great Wall of China last November actually wearing the company's brand of jacket, Weatherproof never contacted The White House to ask permission to use the image.

The legal boundaries of what the company did remain muddled, but as a company that's been known for its outlandish publicity stunts, the billboard was undoubtedly meant to cause a stir. The author of the New York Times article remarks that it may not be worth President Obama's (and the White House's) time to even bother legally pursuing the Weatherproof Garment Company. Legal ramifications and possible tackiness aside, the billboard will drive huge traffic to the company's website and up their name recall factor considerably. The expense they spent on a Times Square billboard is probably nothing compared to what they will reap in consumer recall.

Being politically inclined, one of our reactions quite honestly was to wonder how the billboard and ensuing publicity will affect the Weatherproof Garment Company's overall customer base. Say for example they currently have customers who, in regards to party loyalty, are 50% Democrat and 50% Republican, or some other division thereof when you account for Independents, Libertarians, etc. etc. After putting the floodlights on Obama as the model of choice, undoubtedly those numbers will change. This one billboard and the hoopla around it will ultimately skew their customer base when it comes to political affiliation, regardless of how it affects their overall sales. A trifling point perhaps, but worth mulling.