How about: a Death Ray being shot by Cecil who is screaming “CITE?” The target of this cite-nazism shot would be an incinerated dog-man. (For added effect, he could be riding an Opel motorcycle and the burning dog could be eating Bacon Salt.)
Since he has already shown himself a master of these sort of melanges, this would be right up Slug’s alley (just sayin’.)
What I would like:
SDMB
In the normal font, yellow on blue, available in any of the colors available
My suggestion would also be to do a series of shirts with some of the better questions and pithy statements on the front, and the URL on the back:
“Do tinfoil helmets provide adequate protection against mind control rays?”
“Where are all the baby pigeons?”
“Why does asparagus make your pee smell funny?”
“Observe the snow. It fornicates.”
“If ignorance were cornflakes, you’d be General Mills.”*
I know there are other good ones, but I can’t remember any of them.
*yeah, GM doesn’t make cornflakes, but that’s what he said.
I have always wanted a T shirt, but the one that is available is horrid. I like the idea of the masthead and “cite?”, but it looks like branding is not the way they want to grow business around here.
I will never understand this place. It’s endlessly fascinating, but remains an enigma.
Are you sure it’s not an enigma wrapped in a mystery, cloaked in a T-shirt, dipped in an existential batter?
Just sayin’.
I understand the need for caution from a legal standpoint: I mean, where would Adidas or Nike or Coca-Cola be if they let their customers pay good money to walk around advertising their products in public?
Oh, right. Shit rich. Sorry, silly bloody question; I dozed off for a moment and dreamed I was talking to a proper business run by grown-up professionals.
I will buy at least half a dozen tees that read “Church of Cecil”. I am willing to provide my own art (it will just be lettering).
I have to say I am with elbows on this one. I am all for supporting the Dope and all, but couldn’t the people we are trying to support take at least one step toward the middle in compromise? So far what we have being proposed is: You guys come up with a design (that we didn’t work on), make sure it has a snazzy design and is free advertising for us (as long as it doesn’t have any of our trademarks on it) then take the shirt we didn’t design with the artwork and logos we don’t own anyway, and give us final approval on it. Oh and we keep all the money too.
I don’t know pretty much anything about copyright law, but I assume if I make a shirt that says “SDMB” on the front and “Cite?” on the back, I could sell it anyway without approval correct? (I looked up as much as I could find on the uspto.gov website and it looks like from what I could see only “The Straight Dope” in internet and print use, is still an in-use and active trademark (with “Cecil Adams” and “The Straight Dope” in television use, having expired.))
I would buy a t-shirt, but the “you guys contribute everything, we contribute nothing, we keep the money” thing seems odd. Using the Dope trademarks and them keeping all the money…a-ok.
I don’t see why there’s the need to not use trademarked images. If Creative Loafing owns the images, and they’re making the t-shirts… what the heck is the problem there?
Is there any way to move this thread to Cafe Society or start a new one there? ATMB isn’t exactly high-traffic, and it might be good to get more opinions.
There’s also an announcement that’s running in all forums – it’s about as high profile as it gets right now.
I’ll remind Ed about the request to use the Straight Dope logo.
I think they should be customizable like a Team Jersey so that your username is on the back.
That will lead to the SDMB Olympics. And we’d better start thinking of some events!
I doubt there’ll be much written about our swim team, but the eating competitions, shooter contests, and Trivial Pursuit matches will be an adrenoline rushing bloodbath.
You mean like shooting the dozens?
If you go into the dozens with shooters… te salud!
This might be a tad “too little too late” but quick points that jut from one idea to another…
-I am also fairly new here…and I am completely in the dark over pretty much every meme in here. I love the SDMB and I would be all for getting a t-shirt (longsleeve, hoodie, etc.), but I would absolutely NOT buy it if whatever was written on it didn’t apply to me. SDMB is a fun little club that I am proud to be a part of, but don’t alienate the few of us who are new to please the vets…
…The closest meme I can think of that I might understand would be the “Cite?” phrase, only because I think that means that whenever anyone says a fact someone else asks for a cite, am I right in this?
-I agree and understand the divide between The Straight Dope and the SDMB. There is no way to go on this board and NOT read at least some of the articles that Cecil has written, but you also have to realize who would be the ones buying the shirt. The fact that the SD shirts don’t sell very well means to me that the ones who have the desire to buy a shirt representing their love for The Straight Dope, have already done so…
…For all intents and purposes there is a bigger market out there for the SDMB. Those of us in a younger generation (myself among them) are more likely to wear a quirky shirt that seemingly makes no sense (The Force is with Sequential Threads etc.) than the Slug drawing. I also agree with whomever said that there are some of us who don’t relate the Dope to Slug as much as they associate it with facts/information. I feel that there is more of a chance to sell the shirt if it’s quirkiness outweighs its straightforwardness.
-If it is possible to have multiple shirts with multiple messages that would help the cause. Going by what I have read in the previous coupla pages, and trying to understand the “There is no upfront cost etc. etc.” it makes sense to me to try to make shirts that appeal to each of the thread categories, the dope itself, and maybe a general slogan. To randomly throw out names as examples if Hippos posts 3 out of her 5 threads in “MPSIMS” than she might want a shirt that represents that more so than the other categories. It would be the same with Vox if he posts in IMHO, RickJay with Game Room, etc. I am gonna throw out mild ideas later, but this is something to think about.
-I also rather enjoy the idea of going outside of the T-shirt box. Having something…ANYTHING…to go on a laptop would be awesome. I would also recommend a bookmark if available, mouspads, anything to cater to the “average” Doper’s tastes.
-Ok, now for the creative portion of this post (T-shirt version)…Random ideas for designs…Front: Recommend me a book. Back: Cafe Society. SDMB/Straightdope.com…Front: Ask the guy/girl (two shirt option) who just fought ignorance! Back: MPSIMS. SDMB/straightdope.com…Front: Mafia Champion! Back: The Game Room…Front: In which I pit ignorance! Back: BBQ Pit SDMB/straightdope.com…Poll: How much ignorance have you fought today? Back: IMHO SDMB/straightdope.com.
Also other stuff: Recommend me a coffee/tea (coffee cup, also possible double item). Fighting ignorance since…(Laptop bumper sticker). A list of the SDMB categories as seen on the screen (mousepad), “Recommended by Dopers in Cafe Society” (bookmark), "Tool for fighting ignorance (also kills zombies) {pen}.
This is my two cents (ok more like twenty dollars). Take any and all of it with whatever grains of salt you wish, but I enjoy the idea of SD merch, I enjoy the idea of SDMB merch even more, and the creative portion of my being wouldn’t allow me to keep quiet.
Cheers,
Cups
Great post, Cups!
(And, BTW, “cite?” refers to what you say when someone states something as a fact and you want to know what he or she is basing the statement on. “Nine out of ten Dopers are above average.” “Cite?”)
I like the idea of having different slogans for the different forums. Maybe it would be okay to follow up on applecider’s idea and start a thread in each forum looking for suggestions for that forum.
bolded?
Thanks twicks!
I like this idea, it would get responses, and it would spread the word as well.
I want a bowling shirt in the blue/red/yellow colors of the masthead. That would be awesome.
Failing that, I’ll take the t-shirt design elbows threw out there.
