Eskimo for Kerry? Step into my shop...

BOSTON (AFP) - Someone, somewhere, thinks there are a lot of Democratic Eskimos in America on the hunt for a campaign souvenir. And Democratic skydivers.

And where would John Kerry's hopes for the White House be without all those Democratic Belgian-Americans?

Here at the party's four-day national convention, just about every group you could imagine -- and a few you probably couldn't -- are being hawked specialty souvenirs that seem to re-define the idea of niche marketing.

"If anyone knows any Pakistanis, send 'em in," drawls an affable peddler at one of the convention's main hotels, running his hands through a presumably unexpected surplus of campaign buttons: Pakistani-Americans For Kerry.

"We got a run on these things," he says.

Like much of American public life, US political conventions always attract pitchmen trying to turn a quick dollar, and this year's Boston gala is no different.

There are John Kerry shot glasses and John Kerry golf balls, campaign yo-yos and cookie cutters in the shape of the Democratic mascot, the donkey.

There are decks of playing cards featuring Republican President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as the jokers.

There are even Democratic CD holders, daintily embossed with the convention logo.

But for a party that revels in inclusiveness -- Tuesday night's programme featured the national anthem sung in the "traditional Tohono O'oodham language" (a native American tribe)-- ethnic marketing appears to be very much in vogue.

"We looked up the top 56 ethnicities in the United States," says Allison Lammers, explaining the staggering array of wares on sale around her. "And we put them on buttons."

Swedish-American? Ja. Japanese-American? Hai. Iraqi, Iranian, French -- mais oui.

If you can put -American after it, there's a trinket on sale that will promote John Kerry and parade your heritage at the same time.

The hawkers are not just making their pitch on ethnic lines, though.

There are T-shirts for health care workers, buttons for lawyers, banners to show off your women's pride.

If you're a skydiver, boilermaker or steelworker -- or even if you're just "folically challenged," the tongue-in-cheek sensitive US term for the bald -- there's something up your street.

Of course there's also no shortage of products lashing out at Bush from almost every angle -- from unilateralist (cowboy) to dumb (reading from a children's book that's upside down).

Sales people are taught to make hay while the sun shines, and when the convention wraps up at the end of the week, much of the specialty gear could end up back in storage.

Until then, however, everyone's open for business.

"The oddest thing we're selling are the yo-yos," said Laura Spinner, offering her wares at another hotel nearby. And they don't seem to have an ethnic angle at all.

"A lot of old people are buying them."