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. With Bill Clinton: Alpha shopper
Posted Under: Consumer Behavior
The Times Mag‘s cover story this weekend, about Bill Clinton, opened with a scene of the former president shopping, in Peru.
The store owner showed him a selection of shoulder bags for women. Clinton selected one he thought would be great for his friend, Frank Giustra, the Canadian mining mogul, to give to Giustra’s girlfriend. Clinton said he likes picking out gifts for his friends’ wives and girlfriends.
I found that last point strange: Who buys gifts for their friends’ wives and girlfriends? I can’t imagine doing that. “Hey man, picked up this purse for your girlfriend. Trust me, she’ll like it.” I’m also trying to figure out how I’d react if a male friend of mine (or, for that matter, Bill Clinton) started buying presents for me to give my wife.
E thinks this might simply be normal behavior among people who have lots and lots of money. Or perhaps it’s just part of Clinton’s, um, general interest in women.
It struck me as very odd behavior.
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Reader Comments
Hilarious. As far as buying a gift for his friend to give to his girlfriend, that just seems like false modesty–or feigned self-effacement. If his friend gives the gift, I’m guessing he’d let it be known who the gift was REALLY from. But as far as giving gifts to just the gals… the only acceptable motivation I can think of to explain this behavior is that he’s making an effort to “include” the less “powerful” members of a social gathering. Hanging out with moguls & world leaders, perhaps he regards it as a courtesy to focus on the wives in this way. (Of course, if he’s not also occasionally buying gifts for less powerful husbands, similarly overshadowed by a luminary wives, then that theory is all shot to hell.)
“perhaps it’s just part of Clinton’s, um, general interest in women.”
Yes, I think that’s it. I also found that little anecdote pretty odd. It’s also pretty odd that a Democratic former president who had a pretty good environmental record is palling around with mining moguls, but E’s insight might be on point here – he has to hang out with *someone* and there aren’t that many ex-Presidents around, so the category of next resort is really really rich people.
What if I sent you a Facebook gift that E might like?
Randy: E was on hand as this comment came in, and suggested it would be … creepy. But perhaps creepy in a good way.
Now if Bill Clinton suggested a FB gift her, that would just be creepy.
Check Leroy Smith, Nike’s new ad campaign.
http://davissportsdeli.com/wordpress/tag/does-nike-make-leroy-smith-videos/
http://www.getyourbasketballon.com/home/index.html
I’ve seen a few articles connecting this site to Nike, but nothing really about how exactly Nike is expecting this to turn into money in their pockets. This is true murketing territory, I think.
Thanks Tree Frog.