Promotional T-Shirts: Health Care Reform is a BDF

Knowing how to take a bad thing and turn it into a positive is what marketers do best. After Vice President Joe Biden’s major faux pas while talking to President Obama about the significance of the bill at the health care reform legislation bill signing, his words infamous yet true have also gone down in history.

Unknown to Vice President Biden, he was a little too close to the microphone and everyone heard his comment. It was picked up by every media outlet and rehashed almost as often as the health care bill itself. The Obama administration’s damage control tactic was to join in and embrace the moment. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, tweeted, “Yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right….” They even issued custom t-shirts that reads “Health Reform is a BFD” which stands for Big F@#$ing deal. The shirts are on sale in Obama’s official online store.

The product description is also very clever: “There are things that are a big deal — birthdays, anniversaries, the NCAA Championship game. And then there are things that are a BFD, like delivering health insurance to 32 million Americans. We worked hard together to make health reform a reality, and now you can celebrate this historic victory with this shirt.”

From this companies can learn that most blunders can be fixed, they simply need to look for the opportunity to fix it or laugh it off. The ideal way to do this is to work with a marketing firm that’s experienced at developing innovative solutions to any problem.

—Tavia 954-523-1957 ext. 25