The Trumpy Bear: The distributor of Trumpy Bear, a $40 plush teddy bear that looks like President Trump and is advertised on cable news channels like Fox News.
Told Forbes on Tuesday that the company has received hundreds of threats, including death threats, and that one threat was serious enough to prompt an FBI investigation.
Trumpy Bear of the Important Information
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Trumpy Bear’s promotion and distribution is overseen by Elliott Bracket, vice president of marketing firm Exceptional Products (known for “as-seen-on-TV” gadgets and gizmos like the HairDini hairstyling tool), who told Forbes that people will leave threats, including death threats, on their office voicemail or via email.
“We had one [death threat] that we had to report to the FBI,” Brackett claimed, adding, “he stated we should all die and the president should be killed.”
Brackett claimed that the individual, who wished to remain unidentified, dialled every phone in the workplace and left a death threat on each employee’s voicemail.
“The authorities paid him a visit,” Brackett claimed, adding that the man was put on the Secret Service’s “threats list” in case Trump visited his hometown.
“It’s just a fricken teddy bear,” Brackett said, adding that he believes people react passionately to the product because “Donald [Trump] is someone who really attracts extremes of emotions.”
Forbes reached out to the FBI and the Secret Service for comment, but neither agency responded.
Critic in Chief
V.L. Lange, the creator of Trumpy Bear. She told Forbes on Wednesday, “It’s very terrible that people are making threats about a teddy bear.” “What is the goal of that?” “I’m not certain.”
Important remark
“We’re not a political action committee.” “We’re in the business of selling a product,” Brackett explained. “It’s basically a gimmick that people enjoy and despise.”
A large number
According to Brackett, Exceptional Products has received ten threats over Trumpy Bear, all of which have been reported to law authorities.
A startling fact
People frequently mistake Trumpy Bear for a joke or a parody, according to Brackett, rather than a real product available for purchase. Snopes, a fact-checking website, has a page dedicated to verifying Trumpy Bear’s existence.
Background information
“A storm is coming,” says a voiceover in a 2017 Trumpy Bear commercial, which Lange wrote, directed, and cast. The phrase was linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory,
According to which Trump is fighting a “deep state” of liberal politicians, government officials, and Hollywood celebrities who are leading a global sex trafficking ring.
“The storm,” according to QAnon followers, alludes to a future period when Trump will round up the purported “deep state” and arrest them in a sort of worldwide reckoning.
According to Brackett, the 2017 Trumpy Bear commercial predated QAnon, which is supported by a 2018 Wired storey on the toy.
Lange refuted Brackett’s claim that the allusion to the storm came from the Bible. “There are a lot of references to storms in the Bible,” Lange explained, “but I made that up myself.”
Because Trumpy Bear is a private corporation, Brackett refuses to reveal sales figures. However, he did remark that bear sales increased in March, which he ascribed to more people remaining at home due to the coronavirus outbreak and seeing Trumpy Bear advertising on television.
