Episode 288: Branded Merch as Social Signifier: Amplifier or Igniter?
In 1983, Katharine Hamnett lined up to shake Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s hand. Minutes before, she pulled an anti-nuclear protest t-shirt from her bag and quickly threw it on; the imprint: “The “58% Don’t Want Pershing” startled the Prime Minister and provoked a public conversation about nuclear missiles.
In a 2018 article, Hamnett described the scenario looking back on it nearly forty years later: “‘The “58% Don’t Want Pershing’ came from a European opinion poll about the proliferation of American cruise and Pershing nuclear missiles across Europe without consulting the electorate, which was totally undemocratic. Wearing that on a T-shirt was the best thing I could think of at the time.”
So why on earth are we sharing this anecdote?
Hamnett would go on to design many other protest shirts, including the “Choose Life” t-shirt made famous by musician George Michael, and she would eventually produce over a million in total. Hamnett declared that a t-shirt is designed to “make you think, question, and hopefully act,” also stating that “these shirts are actually… designed to be seminal.”
In other words, a work strongly influencing later developments.
That’s what Mark Graham and Bobby Lehew are talking about today, because branded merch has crossed an important threshold. From protest merch to campaign merch to bands and brands, branded merch has become what one author calls a social signifier: From Tim Horton’s shop to UPS merch to Biden’s Dark Brandon mug and more. Plus, how branded merch is the perfect medium for what some are calling the Joyconomy.