Commerce

A campaign is in a sense the selling of a candidate, a persona and set of ideas, a vision.  In turn there are many consultants and vendors who sell their goods and services to the campaign organization.  But there is also a lot of stuff sold to the general public during a campaign—buttons, hats, flags and so forth.  One can buy official merchandise through the campaigns' online stores.  There is a lot of unofficial stuff as well.  Small businesspeople, sometimes individual entrepreneurs and sometimes employees of a bigger operator, sell merchandise outside campaign events.  Individual entrepreneurs sell or try to sell a wide variety of candidate themed items on Etsy.  Some businesses sell products that tie in to or piggyback off the election in a neutral way, not promoting any particular candidate.  Companies also seek to raise their profiles through corporate sponsorships (+); normally there are abundant sponsorhips connected with various events at the national party conventions, but these were severely curtailed this cycle due to the pandemic.  Finally, a presidential candidate can affect commerce by holding a campaign event or making a stop at a local business; this signals his or her approval of the business and can affect views of area residents toward the enterprise with possible effects on its bottom line.


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