Now that the major political parties have (pretty much) settled on their presidential nominees, Bostonist has decided to take a look at a vital aspect of election strategy: t-shirts.
We really wanted to be fair and balanced in our assessment, and not in a Fox News way, but having perused both candidates official stores and the many user-generated slogans at CafePress, we have to say: Barack Obama is the clear winner of the design campaign.
Let's start with the official merchandise. Obama's website offers a wide variety of designs for men and women. (We're partial to the ObamaMama shirt.) John McCain's site on the other hand offers mostly polo shirts with McCain's name where you'd usually expect to find an embroidered alligator.
(More stylish propaganda after the cut. Image from CafePress.)
Obama also whomps McCain in the branding-of-abstract-concepts race with his clever "Got Hope?" shirts, while McCain offers Leadership, Experience, Honor, and Integrity, but on 4 different shirts, basically forcing his supporters to chose one over the others
Meanwhile, over on CafePress, where people can design and sell their own promotional t-shirts, Obama has an advantage again. As of June 4, there are 29,700 Obama designs for sale to only 7,430 touting McCain. Despite the numbers disadvantage, there are a few creative McCain shirts, including this pop art one and a slightly odd Thomas the Tank Engine homage. Sadly, these are overshadowed by some shirts featuring unpleasant slurs about Obama's name and religion.
Obama's designs range from the ridiculous to the sublime. It isn't difficult to find a unique slogan, be you boomer, bowler, or Buddhist.
Finally, Bostonist would like to note that whatever t-shirt/candidate you end up supporting, remember to be civil to those who do not share your design or political philosophy. Because manners are always fashionable.
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