First there are the obvious t-shirts that can be made from the candidate's political branding (which I discussed in my previous blog), which simply consists of stamping the t-shirt with their brand. Most of these are recognizable by now by the average american for sure. But after watching this CNN highlight I decided to explore the three candidate's online stores a bit further. It's interesting because one would think each candidate would want to stand out with some kind of original idea. But the truth is, the various products in our consumer culture are being used to propagate the candidates’ images (and get free advertising) and often overlap with ideas.
The first thing I noticed was Obama's state t-shirts concept ( http://store.barackobama.com/Shirts_s/1017.htm ). The design is simple and consistent with Obama's visual imagery, incorporating within the letters the familiar 'Red-White-Blue sunrise at horizon evoking change/hope' logo. But then, looking through the different states on the site, I realized that some states were missing. So then I thought, maybe the shirts were only made for states where Obama won the primaries. But states like Wyoming, Washington, South Carolina I could not find on the site. Why exclude them?
I did notice a lot of overlap between the candidates. Obama and Clinton ( http://www.hillarystore.com/ )use the same dark blue look for their popular t-shirts.
Also, all three candidates tap into the infant/women category with similar looking merchandise. It's interesting because in the designer world, designing children apparel/products has always been challenging. Does one maintain the branding image used on other products and stay consistent, or rather does one try to appeal to a younger eye (usually done quite stereotypically; eg. more handwritten, kid-like typefaces, select colors etc.) I noticed that both McCain and Hillary come up with complete new brands on the infant apparel. Frankly, quite ugly.
The funniest overlap to me was the use of the 'got milk?' campaign style. Both Obama and Clinton step away from their political branding typefaces and use the very familiar 'got milk' typeface. Obama writes: 'got hope?' while Clinton writes: 'got experience?'. Talk about originality...
As much as I hate to say it (I am a democrat..), McCain's store ( http://store.johnmccain.com/ ) is quite successful in terms of standing out. He has a whole 'green' category with sustainable eco-friendly apparel. I'm surprised the democrats do not. Also, prices aside, he's the only one tapping into polo shirts, which appeals to a certain crowd, rather than sticking to typical men/women standard t-shirts.
I also saw that most of Clinton's shirts in her store are pretty much made to fit only women (haha WHY???) I mean I know being a woman plays a big part in her political image but..it's strange.. Although, with just a few days left before votes in South Dakota and Montana end the Democratic nomination fight (or at least the pledged delegates portion of said race), the campaign of Clinton held a t-shirt design competition to choose its official t-shirt. The top five chosen ( http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/tshirtvoting/?sc=8 ) from the thousands that were sent in are all pretty ugly and original if you ask me. Really though, how often is the andy warhol silkscreen style used? What do you think? Is that a bad thing? The public is allowed to go on that site and vote from the 5, pick 1. In my opinion, this competition should have been held much earlier.
Finally, I was looking at Clinton posters and it seems strangely familiar to the popular Obama poster (see previous post) done by artist Shepard Fairey. Here, famous Hollywood screenwriter Tony Puryear gives it a try, but I think from a design point of view, it is not appealing at all. Obama wins that one.
What would you like to see with your favorite candidate's name on it?? Thoughts?
See what other have to say:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/from-mousepads-to-piggy-banks/#comments
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/05/fixcam_clintons_tshirt_competi.html?hpid=topnews
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