Patagonia Election merchandise

September 20, Michael Elias

With the coming election that will decide America’s next president and vice president, media and agencies all are participating in their own way to influence the competition. With many strong opinions to get Trump out of office, many large-name brands are participating as well. Patagonia in particular is taking a much more direct approach. Currently, Patagonia mens and womens shorts have the tag “VOTE THE ASSHOLES OUT”. Not only did they make the decision to brand their clothing with the strong statement, but they also opted to use all capitalized letters in the phrase. If you know anything about social media or communication, all capitalized letters implies yelling and emphasis from the speaker.

The particular Patagonia line of clothing with these tags are the “Regenerative Organic Stand-Up Shorts.” According to a Pategonia spokeswoman that they did this, “because we have been standing up to climate deniers for almost as long as we’ve been making these shorts.” She also mentioned that Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, has been thinking about these “assholes” for several years and means that he feels that, “politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science.”

Patagonia’s founder is directly referencing how President Trump has made several declarations against evidence in support of the science behind climate change with statements such as “I don’t think science knows” in reference to the situation itself with global warming. In addition to showing support through this tag for the election, Patagonia has also provided resources for customers who want to vote in favor of supporting climate change. In the past, Patagonia’s support can also be traced to how 3 years ago, they sued the Trump administration due to the president’s interference with the Bears Ears National Monument, located in Utah, when they were trying to downscale the federal land protections. Patagonia’s outspokenness truly impresses me in these harsh political times, and I am amazed that they truly do live up to their brand of protecting the environment and national parks. I always judged Patagonia for being a “boujee” brand that only rich, white, people wear (I myself own multiple Patagonia jackets), but it is nice to see that Patagonia also has its morals and priorities straight. I think if more big-name brands like Patagonia were more willing to speak up about issues like Patagonia does, even against the president himself, then more of their customers would realize the relevance of modern-day issues and how they actually have more power over situations than they might originally think. Especially with the recent passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (may she rest in peace), I think it is more important than ever for agencies, companies, and social media influencers to use their power to make positive change for America.

Although campaigns or general actions that companies make like this one are small in scale, they still have a large impact. I feel that sometimes the most impactful campaigns are the ones that are disguised as campaigns and do not seem like they are truly a campaign at face value. This is because as soon as a person knows something is a campaign, they might view it differently simply because it is a campaign. In addition, even if a campaign like this one in small and not doing much, it is what it represents that is important. And more importantly, it is the small things in life that make the bigger things all the more important. Without “small” campaigns such as this one, the big ones would lose impact and become less impactful. Now that it is apparent how important this campaign is, how about we buy some Patagonia? (If only it wasn’t so expensive).