Chia Obama: Racist kitsch or sincere tribute to the president?

Earlier this week, L.A. Times advertising columnist Dan Neil asked his readers if the controversial commemorative Chia Obama was a sincere tribute or racist scorn. Neil seems to think not and based his opinion on his measure of the man behind the product:

The staggering truth: Chia Obama is a real product, and its creator -- 77-year-old San Francisco ad man and Chia Pet magnate Joseph Pedott, a lifelong Republican -- means it to be a sincere tribute to Obama, who he says has inherited "the biggest can of worms ever put on a president."

"I remember the Great Depression," Pedott says. "It wasn't very nice." In November, after the election, Pedott was deeply worried about Obama, the first Democrat Pedott had ever voted for. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the banking crisis, unemployment and more, says Pedott, "it's almost inhuman to put all that on a president."

Neil goes on to write:

Pedott awoke one winter night with a thought. "Is it possible to take a brand that nobody thinks seriously about and do something good for the country?" And -- veteran adman that he is -- he started to think about how to sell it. "Can I create a commercial that will help Obama do the things that I want done? To give Americans something to hope for, hold on to."

These may seem unduly noble aspirations for a man who sells mossy clay figurines, but for Pedott, the Chia is no joke. "It's the biggest asset I have," he says.

The short version of events is as follows: Pedott commissioned several prototypes -- a three-president series (Washington, Lincoln, Obama), a smiling Obama and the determined Obama, and even an Obama-and-Hillary set. In March, the Chia Obama -- "It's not a 'pet,' " notes Pedott -- was test-marketed at Walgreens in Chicago and Tampa and was almost immediately pulled from shelves after the stores received complaints that the Chia Obama was racist (the big green 'fro, don't you know). Pedott was stunned and disheartened.

"All I tried to do was something positive," he says. "I never even thought about the hair."

Well, he certainly sounds sincere enough to me. Why wouldn't Neil -- or anyone else for that matter -- take Pedott's word at face value? Maybe, just maybe, it's the well-intentioned folks who claim to find racism in the Chia Obama who are seeing something that's not even there? After all, did anyone accuse the Jerry Garcia commemorative Chia of being anti-hippie? Is the Homer Simpson Chia meant to disparage baldies?

And furthermore, no one said "boo" when Pedott released the Mr. T Chia in 2000, so what gives? Even that bastion of political correctness himself, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was amused by the Obama Chia. Haven't we gotten past this stuff?

Apparently the president himself was delighted ("I've got green hair!" he said) with the tribute when presented with a Chia Obama in May: "He's as warm as he can be," Pedott told Neil. "I was so damn impressed."

Now the Obama Chia, shunned by most major retailers, is being sold on television via direct response ads (see video above). Our question to you: Is it racist or sincere tribute? Discuss in the comments (which are moderated, natch)

-- Richard Metzger