Australian Parliament throws out ‘Barrack Obama’ mugs

Tomorrow morning, two lucky Aussies will pour their coffee into what may well become eBay’s most sought-after mugs. Australian Parliamentary services secretary Alan Thompson announced this afternoon that the Parliament House’s gift shop is chucking 200 mugs ordered to commemorate President Obama’s anticipated visit to the country… all because of a typo. (The trip was ...

GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images
GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images
GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images

Tomorrow morning, two lucky Aussies will pour their coffee into what may well become eBay’s most sought-after mugs.

Australian Parliamentary services secretary Alan Thompson announced this afternoon that the Parliament House’s gift shop is chucking 200 mugs ordered to commemorate President Obama’s anticipated visit to the country… all because of a typo. (The trip was canceled in light of the President’s domestic responsibilities in the Gulf). The mugs — which would have made “an excellent keepsake,” Thompson insisted — featured a portrait of the president with his misspelled name, “Barrack Obama,” in bold font below.

The gaffe in itself may not actually be that remarkable (just stop in at the State Department gift shop). The real surprise? Two of the offending mugs were sold before anyone noticed the error. Now that’s a keepsake…

Clare Sestanovich and Sylvie Stein are researchers at Foreign Policy.

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