Columbus Promotions Becalmed by Lack of Interest

Christopher Columbus’ voyage to America in 1492 made history. But the 500th anniversary of his trek isn’t making much of anything--certainly not money or consumer excitement.

As Americans mark Columbus Day today, retailers--hoping that Columbus souvenirs would be as popular as those for the American Bicentennial and Statue of Liberty restoration--are sitting on warehouses full of unsold merchandise.

Twenty-eight companies started out with licenses to sell products with the logo created by the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission. A year later only 14 remain.

Columbus Day sales, once widely advertised, have been squeezed out by more lucrative promotions of Halloween merchandise and campaigns to get customers to do their Christmas shopping early.

Even Hollywood’s promotional dollars don’t seem to dent the public’s apathy.

A motion picture on Columbus’ voyage, featuring Marlon Brando and Tom Selleck, bombed at the box office. A second Columbus film debuted Friday amid a feverish advertising campaign to counteract the bad impression left by the first film.

Experts say Columbus isn’t a good sales tool these days because few people know much about him, and those that do aren’t sure it’s politically correct to promote the man whose arrival in the New World had deadly consequences for American Indians.

Richard Angulo, chairman of the California Indian Council Chumash, a nonprofit group based in Ventura County, said his group was debating whether to participate in demonstrations against Columbus.

Angulo said he believed that protesting would be counterproductive because it would draw more attention to the day than it would get otherwise. “Most people just aren’t interested,” Angulo said.

Even without the controversy, companies in recent years haven’t based as much advertising on Columbus as they once did. One reason is that children don’t relate to him the way older people do.

“Today he probably isn’t emphasized in school as much,” said David W. Stewart, professor of marketing and consumer psychology at USC. Children today don’t know as much about Columbus, and without symbols and ceremonies to emphasize products, it’s a hard sell. “It’s not clear what you buy in celebration of Columbus Day,” Stewart said.

Advertising executive Miles Turpin agreed, adding that part of the problem is that Columbus doesn’t have wide appeal.

“My guess is that companies don’t feel that Columbus is relevant to what they’re selling,” said Turpin, who is chairman and chief executive of the western division of Grey Advertising Inc.

“If you had something you were going to advertise to the ethnic Italian community, there’s relevance, but obviously you wouldn’t want to go to the Indian reservation and use him. If you are going to use mass media, you have to have mass appeal,” Turpin said.

Even Columbus Pharmacy in Los Angeles isn’t running any Columbus Day promotions.

“People don’t really know about Columbus, not like the old days. Maybe he didn’t even discover America, anyway,” said owner and manager Ken Yee.