selling out
Commodify Wall Street vs. the ™ Party
There is nothing more American than commodifying a revolution. We the people love to buy our Che Guevara T-shirts at Urban Outfitters, after all. And so perhaps it's no surprise that both the tea party and Occupy Wall Street were very quickly co-opted by people looking to make a buck. The tea party got started in February 2009; by April, one Barry Coles (who also owns a company that calibrates police radar guns, among other businesses) had already applied for a trademark and begun selling gear at rallies. Similarly, within a month of OWS's inception, opportunistic souls had begun putting the Occupy Wall Street tagline on condoms — which might have prevented certain other things from multiplying, but spawned a whole slew of similarly branded merch.
Sure, there are some extremely meaningful ideological differences between the two movements — and maybe you want to take that into account — but aligning with one or the other is also about picking a lifestyle. It's about celebrity endorsement. It's about schwag. It's about figuring out which anti-sellout movement has sold out more successfully. Below, a brief guide to picking the brand — and we do mean brand — of populism that’s right for you.
| tea party | occupy wall street | |
|---|---|---|
| Demographic | Mostly over 30 | Average age reportedly 33 |
| Books | Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto (Foreword by Glenn Beck) | Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action That Changed America |
| Soundtrack | American Idol alumna Krista Branch's "I Am America", as heard most famously in the Herman Cain campaign ad | Bongos, as heard most famously (and with great irritation) by Zuccotti Park's neighbors. |
| Clothes | Zazzle T-Shirt section | Daryl K, Daily Candy–recommended indie designers |
| Celebrity Endorsements | Jon Voight, Victoria Jackson, Ted Nugent, Donald Trump | Susan Sarandon, Noam Chomsky, Roseanne Barr, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, Michael Moore, Lupe Fiasco, Cornel West, Yoko Ono, Deepak Chopra, Kanye West, Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Penn Badgley, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover |
| TV Network | Fox | MTV |
| App | "Tea Party Finder"; helps you locate nearby tea party groups | "I'm Getting Arrested"; sends a text to friends announcing you've just been arrested |
| Prophylactic | Membership in Tea Party | Condoms |
| Internet Fan Clubs | Conservatives4Palin | Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street |
| Headgear | Tri-corner hats | Guy Fawkes masks |
| Trademark(s) filed? | Yes, including for "Teaparty Patriot" and "Tea Party Patriots" | Yes, including for "We Are the 99 Percent", "Occupy Wall Street", and "Occupy" |