With the above headline, the Columbia Missouri Daily Tribune gets it right, but as the Coffee Shop blog notes, tries to get cute in the body of the article, and the caption to the accompanying photo, which reads, “A notebook sold to a student out of a supply machine at Mill Creek Elementary School bears a logo and slogan similar to those used in the Obama campaign last year. The supplier also distributed pencils with a similar theme.”
Pencils and notebooks resembling President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign ads have been sold in at least one Columbia school and other public schools, causing the company that distributes the materials to travel around the state yanking the supplies out of machines.
Advertisement“Don’t be mad at us,” said Greg Jones, a sales representative with Pencil Wholesale. “It was a total accident.”
Pencil Wholesale distributes supplies to six Columbia schools: Parkade Elementary, Cedar Ridge Elementary, Paxton Keeley Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary, Smithton Middle School and Hickman High School, said Linda Quinley, the district’s chief financial officer.
At Mill Creek, at least one pencil and a notebook with designs similar to Obama campaign advertisements have been sold out of a supply machine. Two families have complained about the politically tinged materials.
Three Missouri schools have contacted Jones since the beginning of the school year asking that the materials be removed, and Mill Creek Principal Mary Sue Gibson this week said she also planned to call Pencil Wholesale.
“I just don’t want to get into that political arena at all,” she said.
The bound three-ring notebook bears a photo of literal change — pennies, quarters, dimes and nickels stacked into piles. Above the photo, white text reads “CHANGE” over a navy background.
Below the photo, “WE CAN BELIEVE IN” sits above a logo similar to Obama’s campaign image — three red stripes separated by white stripes in front of a white circle with a blue background arching over the circle.
The supplies were designed by the art department of Harcourt Pencil Co., based in Milroy, Ind., Jones said.
“The art department was trying to be cutesy,” he said.
They’re mmm-mmm-mmm good!
“Cutesy” Yep. Funny thing is, the logo does more than “resemble” – it IS Obama’s logo. And his slogan. Only the artwork was changed to protect the innocent.
It may not be the grand conspiracy though, LOL, as Pat notes: BS. Designed when Obama was at 70% approval. Printed in China when Obama was at 57%. Sent to warehouses when Obama was at 55%. Distributed when Obama was at 47% and looking like the worst President since Lenin.
And, we figure, headed for The Dollar Store at this point.
I thought it was actually a poke in the eye to Obama as in the only “change we can believe in” is the cold hard cash.