Us Versus Them is continuing to just push out great t-shirts and this one has special meaning behind it. As most of you know , recently, Beyond Petroleum (BP) is responsible for a very large and destructive oil spill within the Gulf that is slowly creeping toward the Florida Keys. After the jump check out a brand new t-shirt in two colorways, a small write-up on the project, and some photos of the disaster just incase your brand new to all of this. As well, fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale of this tee will contribute towards funding 2 cleanup efforts along the gulf coast.
BP which stands for Beyond Petroleum, likes to advertise itself as being a pioneer in alternative energy, and even has a lovely green and yellow logo based on leaves. The problem is since their current CEO has been in place their alternative energy investment has dropped to nearly nothing, and their efforts to manipulate our government has increased. They fund and man protests designed to look like ordinary citizens fighting against climate change legislation. They also fund “scientific” foundations in order to release studies that show results that favor their profit margin. So, really, fuck BP.
So when the spill started getting out of control I immediately reminded myself of a tee we did back in 2007 that featured a tongue in cheek reappropriation of the Sherman Williams logo as an oil can covering the earth with its crude. The image brings to mind the old illustrations of an octopus holding the world in its grasp- a visual representation of too much control being held by one group or company. When we released it there was an accompanying photo across the bottom of the Exxon Valdez to keep the satirical meaning easy to see. So it seems only fitting now to bring it back again. However this time I have included a nice little message for BP’s upper management, along with changing their logo’s color scheme to more accurately represent their interests.
50% of the proceeds from the sale of this tee will contribute towards funding 2 cleanup efforts along the gulf coast. The National Wildlife Foundation is already organizing cleanup efforts on the ground, and another group, Matter of Trust, collects donated hair from salons and people around the world which they use to weave large mats. These doormat sized pads are one of the most effective ways to clean oil off of beaches because of hair’s natural oil absorption properties. If you’d like to donate to these efforts directly, each site has multiple options for you to help.
We are now taking pre-orders for this tee HERE, which will start shipping out in about a week and a half. For those of you not familiar with our product, we use AAA standard weight tees, so if you are used to slimmer fitting tees, please size down. And we are also aware that not everyone is comfortable wearing something with such a *ahem* strong statement, to which i suggest investing in about 4 inches of electrical tape with which to self censor. Just make sure you leave the F— or it simply loses the point.
