Obama Chia Head Grows on Locals
Company owner says President enjoyed his green-haired pottery version
chia obama
Obama Chia is making a comeback in Chicago.
Obama likes his Chia-self.
That’s why many CVS stores are putting the controversial Barack Obama Chia pottery plant that grows green hair back up on its shelves.
This Spring the Obama Chia-pet was pulled from store shelves in Chicago because of objections that it was racist.
But after the president and his girls grabbed one of the clay creations for themselves the controversy seemed to subside.
Joseph Pedott, a Chicago native and president of Joseph Enterprises Inc.’s, had a chance to meet the president at Notre Dame after his commencement address last spring. Pedott used the opportunity to show him the Chia head that had been at the center of many controversies the past winter.
“I presented it to him, and he said, ‘Gee, I’ve got green hair,’” Pedott told the Sun-Times.
Pedott also said first daughters Malia and Sasha Obama enjoyed receiving a separate pair of Obama Chia heads.
“Everybody laughed. I was on Cloud Nine,” the Sun-Times reported Pedott saying.
The San Francisco-based company is now planning to move as many as 500,000 grass kits it had been storing in four Chicago warehouses.
Other Chia heads made by the same company include green-haired heads of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Statue of Liberty. A new model of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the works and will soon be available on store shelves.
Posted Monday, Sep 28, 2009 - 8:02 AM CST
