T-Shirts: Not the Format for Full Messages

Here is a really quick thought that we all need to realize. As much as we are loath to admit it - t-shirts are a terrible format to communicate a message. They really are. They may be extremely effective, but they are not very good. That probably doesn't make any sense, but let me explain.

The main problem comes in the length. With t-shirts, you simply cannnot put that much information on it. For example, I was looking through a magazine recently, and they had an advertisement for an anti-abortion organization. The organization was promoting one of their newest anti-abortion shirts. But the shirt only said "Abortion is Murder". That was all the room that the shirt had. But that is not enough room for whole message to be spread. I cannot believe that the message for the whole organization could be summed up in that phrase. I definitely know that the entire abortion issue is so much bigger than simply that phrase. It is just a horrible formate for an anti-abortion organization to try to fit their entire message into a few words or phrases on a t-shirt.

It is not only unwise for organizations to try to sum up difficult messages on a t-shirt, but it is also dangerous. These messages simply cannot be filtered down to a short phrase. These things lose so much of their value when they are made into catch phrases and sound bites (or shirt bites). In fact, they lose so much of their message that the message that they do communicate is dangerously different. Important things cannot and should not be relegated to catchy phrases or only a few words. They lose the wholeness, the heart, and the substance of the message.


So t-shirts are just not a very good format for sharing messages. I mean, they are - because everyone wears them and everyone sees them. But they are not good formats because they force the message to fit into this little tiny box. Organizations that have important messages shouldn't seek to communicate who they are through t-shirts.


It is just dumb and dangerous.


And organizations should not try to take the substance out of their message just to put it on a t-shirt. Maybe sweatpants because there is more room though...