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The Story of Barack the Vote…
The Beginning: Once upon a time, there was a brother and a sister, who wanted to help get Barack Obama elected President of the United States. The end. The Longer Beginning: In the summer of 2007, Lorielle Broussard and me, Brandon Broussard, took seven hundred bucks out of our savings and made 100 T-shirts with the Barack the Vote logo on them. We gave one of those shirts to a friend who gave that shirt to Hill Harper (CSI: NY) Next thing we know, he’s on TV presenting at an awards show WEARING OUR SHIRT! The next day, we got a message from Hill saying he wanted 250 shirts for Oprah’s fundraiser in Montecito, California. Oprah! But, even with that exciting news, people still weren’t totally excited about Barack Obama. At least not as much as we were. The Turn: From September to December of 2007, we only did about six thousand dollars in sales. One thousand dollars a month. In January of 2008, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus. In that month alone we did thirty thousand dollars in sales. It was bananas! Not the fruit. At the time, Lorielle and I were assistants at Tyler Perry’s studio in Atlanta. Two months later, we had moved to Los Angeles, CA and were running our own company, Barack the Vote, full time. Over the course of the next few months, Barack the Vote sold over 50 thousand shirts, did over a million dollars in sales, donated over 50 thousand dollars in cash, goods and services to the campaign and most importantly, helped Barack Obama become… President Barack Obama. Yeah!!! And Now: We are ready for 2012! The original goal of Barack the Vote was “to create something that people loved and would wear all the time, not just at rallies.” What we have created for 2012 is nothing short of that! We believe that our new shirts and Behind Obama shorts will have everyone talking. By wearing our products, it gets people thinking about Barack Obama, and because you are so cool, they will think that voting for Barack Obama is cool, which it is. We are proof that it works! Donations: Owners Lorielle and Brandon donate 25% of their net profits to the Barack Obama campaign and the Democratic party. Lorielle about her brother Brandon: Brandon is a TV/FILM writer producer. He’s slightly more well known than me because he was on Millionaire Matchmaker. Whatever. He says he came up with the idea for Barack the Vote when he was watching an Obama rally in Austin. I don’t know where his ideas come from, but I thought it was a great one so I designed the Barack the Vote t-shirt and the Behind Obama shorts. He also, unfortunately, graduated from Howard University. Brandon on Lorielle Broussard: Lori is a stylist/designer who’s worked for Ciara, Law & Order, Body of Proof and is the COO of Barack the Vote. She was also front and center when they put us on the cover of Black Enterprise Magazine. She looked pretty cute. I however looked silly and have since changed my hair style. Back to her, she unfortunately graduated from Spelman College. I tried to tell her to go to Howard. I guess it’s worked out alright for her. 
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