Prospectus

Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: News

CHICAGO-Walgreens has announced that the commander in chief will not sprout a Chia Afro on its shelves.

The Deerfield, Ill.-based company has pulled Chia Obama after a one-week run. Robert Elfinger, a spokesman for Walgreens, said the chain was yanking the product from test markets in Tampa, Fla., and Chicago.

"We decided to pull the product because it didn't fit with our corporate image," he said in a company statement. "We also didn't want to be subject to any misinterpretation over the product. People could interpret it through a political viewpoint or other viewpoints and we want to avoid that situation."

Elfinger says an AOL.com story early Tuesday misquoted him in reporting that customers had complained the product was "racist."

"The word I used was 'offensive,'" Elfinger said.

The move caught Joe Pedott, president of Joseph Enterprises and maker of the Chia Obama, off guard.

Pedott insists the clay bust is "totally patriotic."

"It's hope, courage and pro-American," he told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.

"If someone calls me racist, I get livid," he said. "I'm a Republican and voted for Obama."

He said he remains baffled by Walgreens' move, because "the stores love it. Our sales increased 50 percent day to day for the one week it was in the stores."

News of Walgreens' removal of the presidential planter has led at least one enterprising Internet seller to offer the Chia Obama for $50-more than double the $19.99 shelf price.

Although still reeling from the announcement, Pedott says he will still sell his clay patriotism through Amazon.com, drugstore.com and chiaobama.com.

He also hasn't given up on physical retail locations, saying, "We're talking to (Walgreens') friendly competitors."

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(c) 2009, Chicago Tribune.

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