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Michelle Obama is a historic First Lady.

As the first Black woman to ever hold the coveted title, the woman born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in Chicago, IL, was put under a microscope almost from the moment her husband, President Barack Obama, took office.

Fortunately, however, Mrs. Obama handled the newfound pressure with her trademark grace.

Being the first Black anything is gonna be hard, she told Robin Roberts of Good Morning America. I knew, as the first Black first lady, I couldnt presume anything Id have to earn my grace.

Today, Michelle Obama has more than earned her grace. As AfroTech previously reported, shes earned a $70 million net worth, inked a separate deal with Spotify for her own podcast, hosted voter drives to encourage young people to vote, and even got inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame.

And thats just the beginning.

But where Mrs. Obama really shines is in her ability to influence markets. More than just being a pretty face to look at, and endorse products, Mrs. Obama is a veritable business powerhouse. Vanity Fair revealed an estimate that said in the eight years that she was First Lady, Michelle Obama drove more than $2.7 billion to the retail sector.

In 2010, New York University business professor David Yermack, calculated that Obamas fashion choices alone have driven $2.7 billion to the retail sector, Vanity Fair reported in 2016.

Whats more, the outlet also said that companies saw a 2.3 percent stock gain when she dons their productsfive times that of a typical celebrity endorsement.

Lets take a look at a few other deals that have experienced The Michelle Obama Effect.

Editorial note: The net worth listed in this piece is a speculative estimate drawn from a variety of online sources.

When Barack and Michelle Obamas Spotify deal was announced back in 2020, the NASDAQ reported that the streaming companys stock jumped by five percent on the day of the announcement.

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Spotifys total monthly active users and premium subscribers both increased by 31% year over year, to 286 million and 130 million, respectively, in the first quarter, the report said.

Throughout the entire time that President Barack Obama was in office, First Lady Michelle Obama had quite the impact on fashion.

Jackie Kennedy may have popularized pillbox hats and capes, but David Yermak of the Harvard Business Review points out that only Michelle Obama was actually able to move markets with her fashion choices.

The stock price gains of the companies whose clothes she wore in public appearances29 brands in allare cumulative abnormal returns. That is, the returns cannot be attributed to normal market variations, he wrote. Some companies that sell clothes that Obama frequently wears, such as Saks, have realized long-term gains.

Further, according to the Harvard Business Review, Michelle Obamas effect on the market is based on a two-fold observation. One, she wasnt paid to wear designers and observers can therefore put more trust into her tacit endorsement than, say, in a fashion spreads tacit endorsement. And two, Mrs. Obama doesnt just wear unaffordable haute couture. Rather, she pairs couture pieces with prt--porter pieces (like, for instance, from J. Crew), which makes it more accessible to the average consumer.

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Inside The Estimate That Says Michelle Obama Drove $2.7B To The Retail ...