Time For a Bailout

As I sit in my office watching eight people on CNBC talk over each other while "debating" the merits of yet another U.S. government backed bailout plan, two questions come to mind:  First, when are the rest of us going to get some type of personal bailout?  If Wall Street can have one and the auto companies can have one, then shouldn't I get one to help cover Kerith's Nordstrom bill?  And, second, when is someone really smart going to take advantage of all of this bailout talk to market their own product while generating a little humor in this otherwise bleak time?

Lo and behold, just a few minutes later an advertisement pops into my e-mail box promoting a new wine offering:  Bailout Wine.  Not only does the name play to people's current fears, but it actually offers a personal bailout of sorts.

The gimmick is simple, yet ingenius.  You can currently order a bottle of the 2007 Bailout Cabernet from CrushPad for $39 a bottle.  However, the wine isn't going to be bottled until August 2009 and that's where the "bailout" comes in. 

For every 100 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average between your purchase date and the bottling date, they're going to refund you $2 per bottle.  That means that if you purchase the wine when the Dow is at 8,800 for $39 and the Dow drops to 7,300 by the bottling date, you're going to end up paying only $9 per bottle.  If the Dow goes up during that period, the price is locked at $39.  And the wine is probably going to be quite good regardless of the price with fruit sourced from vineyards in Oakville, Mt. Veeder, and Pritchard Hill and made by CrushPad's top notch crew of winemakers. 

Talk about a great hedge!

Congrats CrushPad - brilliant idea.  I just ordered two bottles.  At the very least, I figure that the $60 I just potentially saved on the wine should just about cover a few days worth of interest payments on Kerith's Nordstrom account.  Now if I could just get the U.S. Treasury department to lend me a couple of billion.....

You can learn more about Bailout Wine by clicking here.

They have a pretty funny promotional video that I've posted below.  At this point all we can do is laugh, right?

If you can't see the video below, please click here.