American (Political) Legends T-Shirts

admin    T-Shirt News     political t-shirts, retro campaigns, retro t-shirts, retrocampaigns.com, vintage tees

Retro Campaigns, an old favourite of the Buy Tees team, have just released three new tees to mark the beginning of a new series of presidential t-shirts, simply titled ‘American Legends’, this collection offers up a little good ol’ political nostalgia featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln himself, as well as Teddy Roosevelt, and someone I’m not familiar with (being a Brit) called William Henry Harrison, who apparently was the first showman in politics.

For those not familiar with RetroCampaigns.com you can read our previous reviews here and here. This makes our third feature on RC, perhaps we should ask for a freebie or two, and see if we can’t hold a contest for you lucky people. We’ll see. In the meantime let’s check out Abe and Teddy, oh and the other one heh…
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The Art Of Politics At RetroCampaigns.com

admin    T-Shirt News     JFK, democrat, political t-shirts, presidential, presidents, republican, retro campaigns, retrocampaigns.com

Re-imagined, digitally aged, and carefully printed on vintage-style fabric Retro Campaigns have just released another batch of past presidential campaigns for the politically nostalgic t-shirt fan. Expect more familiar names from the American role call of leaders, the good, the bad and the ugly are all present to swear their oath of allegiance to kitsch fashion on a monumental scale. Look out for new tees featuring landmark characters of the political landscape such as JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, as well as less well known campaigners such as Barry Goldwater and Adlai Stevenson.

It must say something about our present culture when politics of a bye-gone era can warm our hearts and bring a smile to our faces. Perhaps it’s simply because there was a distinct lack of marketing savvy, image branding was something you did to a cow’s rear end, and a spin doctor was more likely busy selling phony medicines and potions from the back of a car in a one-horse town than teaching the future leader of the country how to effectively ‘bend the truth’ to his own advantage. Don’t get me wrong, politicians were always crooked, in fact I prefer the ones who lie about who they bedded and where than those who decide to lead a country up the garden path without a by nor leave, ending their term halfway through a bloody war, recession, political cover-up, or a rather brutal combination of all three.

The truth is no one person is in charge these days, besides the fact we live and die to serve a so-called global market, hence the constant hand-shaking and brow furrowing of just about every leader in the world, but beyond that it’s the corporate world, or rather the few that own the lion share of the remaining profitable corporations in the world. They call the shots. The president of the USA, no matter what his or her name or colour of their skin, and every other president and prime-minister of the democratic world serve the money men, and charge us for the privilege. If there’s money to made then some faceless billionaire or other is sure to back a political (marketing) campaign to the hilt, but always under certain conditions, be it corporate taxes, citizenship, or turning a blind eye to environmental damage, for instance. Still, we always have the soft focus of rose-tinted nostalgia to help us take our minds off the state of the world today, so let’s take a dip back into the corny campaigns of presidents past, and smile at the naivet√© of what was once considered state-of-the-art political coercion. read more

New Designs From The Past at Retro Campaigns

admin    T-Shirt News     JFK, Obama, Reagan, Thatcher, War, political t-shirts, politics tshirts, retro campaigns, retro political tee, retro t-shirts, retrocampaigns.com

RetroCampaigns.com have added new political campaign t-shirt designs to their collection, featuring ex-presidents JFK and Reagan amongst others. Retro Campaigns, Inc. is a small, Los Angeles-based company, whose aim is to recall unique characters from American politics, with style and fun. All of their designs are printed on high-quality, sweat-shop free American Apparel shirts and notably, a portion of their profits are donated to a very worthy cause at SaveDarfur.org.

Again they’re featuring some US political icons from the past, it would be nice to see them expand their horizons and venture beyond the shores of America, perhaps it’s all down to supply and demand, I know that Margaret Thatcher (ex UK PM) has had as much influence on political history as Ronald Reagan, in fact they were close allies and friends for many years, and even Ronnie remarked upon the importance of Britain’s first female Prime Minister on the world stage. Even today, at least in a majority of European political circles, the term ‘Thatcherism‘ is still widely used to describe the trend towards privatisation of most privatisation of public services and infrastructure, entrepreneurialism in a perspective of the aggregation of personal wealth and self-responsibility, be it on an economic level or one’s interaction within society and state.

I grew up through the Reagan/Thatcher years, and learned to hate that time, it was oppressive, materialistic, politically paranoid and filled with grand gesture which in the long run failed to achieve much. The Star Wars Program was one example of Reagan the actor ousting Reagan the politician, another was the Falklands War and in particular the furore surrounding the sinking of the Belgrano overridden by a cult of personality, a more sophisticated circle of political pr experts and high economic forecasts for the UK at the time. But the worst of all must have been the infamous recording of Ronald Reagan announcing the beginning of WW3 for a laugh. Prior to his weekly radio address on August 11 1984, Reagan uttered this on what he assumed was not a live microphone. “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” read more