Celebrity Sell Out

The Creative Coalition, a 'non-partisan political group founded by actor Alec Baldwin, has shown impartiality does not extend to brands. The group has tied Pepsi and tat-for-sale channel QVC into its Barack Obama inauguration ball. Pepsi has taken the place as lead sponsor. While viewers who are bored with watching the likes of Ann Hathaway, Spike Lee and Maggie Gyllenhaal in their posh frocks and Sunday best will be treated to regular intervals of QVC flogging a variety of Barack Obama-related crap. Inauguration-tat being prepared for the viewers delectation includes a ‘Barack Obama gold-plated card and colourised $1 coin set’ ($19.80), Barack Obama Flag Pins ($14.50), Barack Obama framed inauguration speech ($75.48), framed newspaper clippings from the event ($58.68) and, our favourite, an Barack Obama sofa throw ($36.84). Maybe Matt Stone and Trey Parker missed a trick when they lampooned the group in 'Team America'. In the film various actors such as Baldwin, Sean Penn and Matt ‘Matt Damon’ Damon appeared as part of F.A.G. (Film Actors Guild) a group in-league with North Korea. But it's doubtful whether Kim Jong-il, targeting world domination in the film, would have had anything to do with such tosh. No-one knows how much QVC and Pepsi paid to the coalition however it was probably only slightly more than the tickets to the event itself. A variety of packages have been created ranging from Platinum ($100,000) to a bog-standard Bronze ($10,000). But costly as the tickets may be at least they'll be away from a TV and avoid switching onto QVC by mistake.