In a few hours Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th and first mixed race president of the United States. At least two million people are expected to attend the inauguration, with an estimated one billion people watching the event on their televisions. Mr Obama will take the oath of office on the historic President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural Bible at 1200 local time (1700 GMT). He will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol building looking across the city towards the iconic White House.

Mr Obama has played an interesting role in the world of marketing and promotional products, with many brands making ongoing efforts to align themselves with Obama, and his message of hope in particular. The new Pepsi logo and the Obama campaign logo are similar, both  of which use swirls of red, white, and blue. While Pepsi have launched a new website called RefreshEverything.com. The site is dedicated to “the man who is about to refresh our nation”, and invites people “help us refresh America” by uploading a video message to the soon to be President.

Pepsi of course are not the only ones. Ikea have become the new champions of America despite being Sweden’s most famous export. They have been compiling a “WELCOME OBAMA!” guestbook, to kick of the start of his presidency. While Facebook has joined forces with The New York Times to launch a Presidential Suggestion sub-site.

Also according to the 2008 Presidential Image Power Survey from branding firm Landor Associates and research firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, apparantely Barack Obama is particular associated with brands such as BMW, Target, Google and Samuel Adams, while John McCain conjured up images of Ford, Wal-Mart , AOL and Budweiser.