CNN.com Visitors: Barack-ing the T-Shirt

by stephanie ~ November 10, 2008

We all know that history was made in last Tuesday’s presidential election.  Barack Obama’s face is on the cover of most magazines and newspapers, and politics are still infiltrating advertisements.  CNN achieved record t-shirt sales in the 24 hours following the election thanks to a program they initiated in April.

About seven months ago, CNN introduced a program that allowed web visitors to click a shirt icon next to a story’s headline that sends the headline to be printed on the front of an American Apparel t-shirt.  Following the headline is “I just saw it on CNN.com,” along with the date and time of the post.  CNN chose to go in this direction to increase brand awareness of CNN.com.

Following this year’s election, thousands of CNN visitors purchased a t-shirt featuring the headline “Obama inspires history victory,” which is the title of CNN’s story announcing Obama’s win.  Thanks to the election, CNN.com saw over 4 million more visitors and nearly $75,000 in T-shirt sales.

I think this is a pretty smart marketing plan by CNN.  Granted, I love t-shirts with slogans and catchphrases, but apparently so do a lot of other people.  Andy Mitchell, VP of interactive marketing at CNN said, “Every marketer wants to figure out how to become the next viral phenomenon and have consumers engage in the brand on a different level.”  Taking news headlines off of a website and putting them on shirts seems to fit that bill.

Before Obama’s victory shirt, other popular shirts included “Colossal squid has soccer ball eyes” and “One in three office workers hung over.”

For more information:

Ad Week:  CNN Promo Turns Headlines Into T-Shirts

Ad Week:  Obama Win Fits CNN to a ‘T’

Stephanie Jones is an intern at Mediashop PR.  A student at Fordham University, Stephanie is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies.