"Trojan T-Shirts"

[Xicked]

This is pretty cool:

From http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,779446,00.html

Fans at a recent right-wing extremist rock festival in Germany thought they were getting free T-shirts that reflected their nationalistic worldview. But after the garment's first wash they discovered otherwise. The original image rinsed away to reveal a hidden message from an activist group.

With a skull-and-crossbones logo and the message "Hardcore Rebels - National and Free," some 250 black T-shirts given away at a recent right-wing extremist rock festival were quickly snapped up. But there was more to the tough-looking image than met the eye.

Once the rightist rockers washed their new shirts, they were dismayed to find an entirely different message: "If your T-shirt can do it, so can you. We'll help to free you from right-wing extremism." The offer, complete with contact information, came from a group called Exit Deutschland, which helps people get out of the neo-Nazi scene.

The group sent their "Trojan T-shirts," disguised as a donation from an anonymous party supporter, to the organizers of the Aug. 6 event, which took place in the Thuringian city of Gera and was sponsored by the right-wing extremist NPD party. Exit Deutschland has been pleased with discussion the initiative prompted in online neo-Nazi forums, co-founder Bernd Wagner told daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

HEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

[Don Coyote]

That is freaking awesome.

[Phox]

 

That is fucking hilarious.

[navkat]

Hey, Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

We need to take up a collection and get our meme...uh, I mean message out there.

Quick! Everbody tithe!

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

  This rules. I wonder what they used that washed off like that?

[Pæs]

Oh, this is awesome. 

[East Coast Hustle]

fucking brilliant!

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I shared a link on Facebook about this yesterday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/10/german-right-wing-fans-tshirts

[Triple Zero]

Awesome.

Earlier I heard they handed them out, but it makes much more sense that they'd send them in as a "donation", I wouldn't have wanted to be there handing out those shirts and it'd have started raining or something ...

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

 

Would have been even better if they had sold the shirts to them, but, yeah, what 000 said.

[Placid Dingo]

Is it really so effective? Te point isn't to get one up on right wing extremists, it's to get them wantinyour product. So I wonder if the messer itself premieres as effectively as it should. That said, the emotional charge associated with being tricked; surprise or anger, would certainly leave the message remembered well.

Also, what's really impressive is their success at giving a message to their audience, who are specifically those who are most likely to resist the message.

Also, I guess there's a question of if I'm missing the point; is this even aimed at the folk who received the shirts? Or is the media attention the key goal?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Did you read the article? 

[Cainad (dec.)]

This is fucking GREAT.

Is it really so effective? Te point isn't to get one up on right wing extremists, it's to get them wantinyour product. So I wonder if the messer itself premieres as effectively as it should. That said, the emotional charge associated with being tricked; surprise or anger, would certainly leave the message remembered well.

Also, what's really impressive is their success at giving a message to their audience, who are specifically those who are most likely to resist the message.

Also, I guess there's a question of if I'm missing the point; is this even aimed at the folk who received the shirts? Or is the media attention the key goal?

False dichotomy.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Also, from the article:

Still, the initiative to outwit the neo-Nazis is unlikely to prompt immediate re-evaluation of their values, Wagner said. "But our name will be stored in their minds. And when they consider leaving the scene at some point, they will remember us," he told the paper. The group's main goal was to reach young right-wing extremists "in a situation where they would hopefully be alone at home."

Exit Deutschland was founded in 2000 by Wagner, a criminologist, together with Ingo Hasselbach, a former neo-Nazi leader. According to the group's estimates, they have helped some 400 right-wing extremists to escape the scene.

There is value in reading the article before discussing it.