Obama gets his own cognac

by Frank James

Hennessy Cognac as a brand was revived by African-American rap stars who sang its praises in songs like Tupac Shakur's "Hennessey."

A sample:

"They wanna know who's my role model,
It's in the brown bottle.
You know what's our (bleep) motto,
Hennessy."

As Gatorade is to sports stars, Hennessy is to bling-laden rap royalty.

Thus, as a shoutout to its loyal customer base of young African Americans of the hip hop variety, Hennessy is doing some clever marketing around the inauguration of the first African American president next week. It is selling special, limited edition inaugural bottle of its cognac with "44" on the label.

As the New York Times reported:

The maker of Hennessy Cognac, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is using numerology rather than language in its promotion, selling 180,000 bottles, priced at $30 each, bearing seals and labels on the front and back emblazoned with "44" and phrases like "In honor of the 44th president" and "In honor of the presidential inauguration."

The company plans to make donations to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for each bottle sold, said Andy Glaser, senior vice president for Hennessy at Moët Hennessy USA in New York, with a goal of starting two four-year scholarships through a minimum donation of $50,000.

Celebrities will be asked to autograph bottles, he added, which will be sold at auction later this year to benefit the fund.

This gives new meaning to the abbreviation BYOB. Now it can apparently stand for Bring your own Barack, as in cognac.