Jingoism for Dollars

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 3, 2011 4:30PM

We shouldn't be shocked that businesses and budding entrepreneurs use historic moments to parlay them into a little bit of scrilla. It's the American Way. We stopped counting the number of knock off t-shirts printed to commemorate President Obama's election, or Michael Jackson's death two years ago, or Sears tying advertising to the recent tornadoes in the South, or the seemingly endless stream of "Never Forget" paraphernalia that still trickles from the 9/11 faucet and businesses that still hold Martin Luther King Day "white sales." We're not even shocked that a trove of merchandise and events capitalizing on the Osama bin Laden raid are already up and looking for someone's discretionary income. We only question the taste of some of the endeavors.

The photo in this post comes from a Miami nightlife promoter who wasted no time in organizing a "Na na na, Hey Hey, Goodbye" party to celebrate bin Laden's death at a strip club, with the late al Qaeda leader's image photoshopped onto a flyer with two women we can assume aren't virgins he met in the afterlife.

Capitalizing on Osama's death isn't relegated to just the titty bars. Online t-shirt resource Cafepress.com sent out press releases yesterday declaring themselves a "cultural barometer of public opinion."

"The CafePress community of 6.5 million users has already created over 1,000 new products in less than 24 hours," the press release read. That community has already created t-shirts and other tchotchkes with slogans such as: “America: Winning!”; “Sorry it took so long to get you a copy of my birth certificate. I was too busy killing Osama Bin Laden”; “5/1/11: We Remember 9/11”; “Osama Bin Hit”; and "Justice Served." Perfect for the person in your life who expresses his patriotism with a coffee mug or a baby onesie.

Maybe you gun lovers want to buy the Osama bin Laden practice target from OPSGear.

The Tribune also weighed in on the glut of Osama-related merchandise, noting that the T-Shirt Deli in Wicker Park took the more subtle route of creating a t-shirt with a hide-and-seek design with bin Laden's face. Assistant Manager Janet Luebbers said she sold one almost instantly.

A look through our email inbox found two press releases using the bin Laden raid to promote a PR firms clients. One led off with "Not to be overshadowed by the death of Osama Bin Laden, I have this fantastic musical news for Chicago!" before announcing that Local H will headline Cinco Division on Thursday (which we were told by Local H and their publicist they were not aware of the press release). The other and was from Lakeview meet market Uncle Fatty's Rum Resort, which is hosting an "Osama bin Laden Is Rot’n" party Friday. From the press release:

Arrive at Uncle Fatty’s decked out in your favorite American-style swagger that represents your love of your country for no cover charge. This means garb sporting our nation’s flag, your favorite team USA t-shirt and any other creative clothing item you can think of.

The staff will is pulling out all the stops for this event with specialty cocktails like “The Floating Terrorist” and “Osama Been Shot” - a blood red shooter made with vodka and grenadine, and a live performance from Wedding Banned.

We're guessing the band will play Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." a lot and not get the irony.

This is a free market economy and businesses have a right to do this. We only question the taste. We're still looking for mudflaps featuring Calvin pissing on bin Laden's corpse. We're actually surprised they've not turned up.