It’s an age-old practice that nobody can stand, while at the same time no one can seem to get enough of.

As voters, we grumble and gripe as we flip the channel during the all-too common political commercials that bash our candidate of choice. In the midst of what seems to be an unending slew of political commercials, signage and campaign-supported door-to-door supporters, is the political merchandise. T-shirts, bumper stickers and, of course, who can forget the John Kerry flip-flops.

In the most recent politician-bashing activity, two “freelance writers” got a little carried away in their cleverness by incorporating the common political criticism of “waffling” with actual waffle mix. Inspired by this play on words, the creators of the disappointingly unoriginal piece of poli-merchandise tactlessly branded their product with an arguably stereotypically black cartoon of Barack Obama. Accompanying the main graphic, the cartooned version of his face was also placed at the top of the box, complete with a turban and next to a text box reading: “Point the box toward Mecca for tastier waffles.” The waffle mix box also included a recipe on the back that served “4 illegal aliens” and featured yet another Obama cartoon erasing the border of the recipe.

Making a claim one way or another, whether the cartoons were racist and offensive or satirical and humorous, would be fruitless. After all, it could be argued that mainstream comedy thrives on all those above.

Our question arises from the root of the industry, which simply consists of those who either make a living off their merchandise, or in the Obama Waffles case, likely have too much time on their hands. Such “business people,” if you will, spend a great deal of resources and energy to direct shallow jabs at politicians they oppose. With politicians’ garrulous speeches, oftentimes spotty voting records, and their fine tuned art of avoiding questions — qualities that so many politicians hold in common — it seems merchandise playing off those qualities are futile blows, not to mention wasteful.

On an even broader level, politicians, or in this case their respective supporters, may be better off channeling their resources elsewhere. In a society where voters oftentimes base their voting decision off pop culture and comedy, candidates and their supporters should be responsible for providing fair and accurate information about all political parties. Branding and misrepresenting a candidate is only hypocritical as we push to create an educated voter base.