Whitman Pioneer

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Sweet Sasha and marvelous Malia: Lay off the Obama girls

Opinion / By Lisa Curtis and Alex Kerr / February 12, 2009

Ben and Jerry’s has just debuted a new ice cream flavor “Yes Pecan,” Chrysler is using an Obama-inspired voice in car commercials in Australia and Pepsi’s billion dollar re-branding project is looking surprisingly like a flipped Obama logo.

Obama might as well turn the economy around by selling Barack-and-Roll t-shirts at Urban Outfitters. It seems just as futile to resist the onslaught of new fashion movements in Michele Obama’s wake.

Michele and Barack are adults, they can handle this kind of scrutiny. Their 10 and seven year old girls, however, cannot.

Picture slideshows of Sasha’s “Sassiest Campaign Trail Moments” or VH1 features on Malia’s fashion choices are tasteless.

Far worse is the pair of Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia dolls produced by the Beanie Babies company. It has gotten so out of hand that Michele Obama had to issue a press statement through her secretary, stating that she finds it “inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes.”

So inappropriate that until this presidency, profiteering off first kids has been mostly taboo.
During President Clinton’s impeachment debacle, People magazine ran a cover article on Chelsea Clinton’s day-to-day struggles. The magazine was criticized by the media, Hillary Clinton and even the Secret Service for revealing too much. Chelsea was almost eighteen years old at the time.

The Obama girls are far less prepared for this kind of exposure, and yet journalists find it appropriate to publish their morning routine, school schedule and even their lunch menus.
Some reporters have even solicited quotes from anonymous fifth graders. No detail of these girls’ lives, it seems, is too minute to publish nationally.

“We can reliably report some details,” reported Richard Leiby and DeNeen L. Brown of the Washington Post, “such as: Sasha carried a JanSport Trans backpack with a camouflage pattern of pink, magenta, gray and white camouflage. Attached to the backpack was a turquoise, three-eyed Uglydoll keychain.”

Sales of Uglydolls are rumored to have skyrocketed and the Uglydoll blog has lauded Sasha for her good taste.

Can we just go back to critiquing Barack for his horribly worn-out baseball hats?

Let’s let Sasha and Malia grow up before we turn them into twin Miley Cyrii.

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Sweet Sasha and marvelous Malia: Lay off the Obama girls was published on February 12, 2009 in Opinion

About Lisa Curtis and Alex Kerr
Lisa Curtis and Alex Kerr

One Response to “Sweet Sasha and marvelous Malia: Lay off the Obama girls”

  1. kews says:

    Not the fault of the Ugly Dolls company.
    Sasha wore their product.
    Unlike some OTHER toy companies who went all out.

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