As Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama prepare to go head-to-head in the fall presidential election, one high-profile business owner may be facing challenges posed by mixing business and politics.

In a May 26 story, The New York Times reported "the average audience for 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' has fallen nearly 7 percent this year," and the overall circulation of Winfrey's O magazine has dropped by about 300,000 since 2004. The newspaper blames those decreases on myriad factors, such as general overexposure — Winfrey has launched several initiatives this year including "Oprah's Big Give," a reality show — as well as Winfrey's interest in "new-age spiritualism" and her public endorsement of Obama early in the competitive Democratic primary.

"I think the [political] endorsement probably backfired with a number of her fans," Steven J. Ross, chairman of the history department at the University of Southern California, said to the Times, "because once you open your mouth, you alienate 50 percent of your audience."

That's the kind of lesson Roger Villere of Villere's Florist in Metairie, La., says he learned firsthand twenty years ago, after he offered to post campaign signs at his shop for a friend running for the local sheriff's office.

"I took a lot of heat for that," admits Villere, who has been the chairman of Louisiana's Republican party for the past four years and is one of the state's three Republican super delegates. Despite his high-profile political post, Villere now maintains a consistent "nonpartisan" policy at his shop.

"It's something you have to be very careful about," he says. "Very early on, when I got involved in politics, my wife — the secretary/treasurer of the shop — said, 'This can't affect our livelihood.' I don't have any political signs or bumper stickers on the premises, and I don't come to work wearing T-shirts or hats for a certain candidate."

In Minneapolis, Ardith Beveridge, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, of Koehler & Dramm Institute of Floristry often designs flowers for politicians. While on the job, she says she keep her opinions to herself.

"When I do designs for the governor, the president, [for any] event with the same view as me or not, I listen, keep on subject," she says. "When a political or religious topic arises, I listen, if I'm asked a direct question, I say that I do not have enough information to discuss the topic, person or event."

When it comes to being active in a local community — in any capacity — consistency is key, says Michael Ritz of Church Street Flowers in San Francisco. At the beginning of each year, Ritz and his staff map out which charities to work with that year and where to donate — a proactive approach that Ritz says helps him to avoid hurt feelings in the community.

Still, not all of the shop's community involvement can be anticipated ahead of time. That was the case in 2004 when Ritz was among a handful of florists profiled in a USA Today story on flowers being delivered to city hall in support of gay marriage from well-wishers around the country.  For Ritz, that issue was about civil rights, and he wasn't worried about alienating customers or potential customers with a different point of view.

"I wasn't asking anyone to believe in what I believe, " he says,  "but... there were people who were picketing when I dropped off flowers [at city hall] and those signs had hateful things. I didn't worry about losing those people as customers. I don't think they would be my customers in the first place."

Read the full story on Winfrey — including some experts' opinion that her political activism is actually a big part of her appeal — here.

Tell us what you think: Should small-business owners be active in local causes, campaigns and potentially controversial topics? Is the political world bad for business?

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 

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