The subtle anti-Trump aesthetic of Etsy’s quiet resistance merch
Plus: This study found the limits of digital political ads
Programming note: I’ll be off until a week from Thursday for the Memorial Day holiday. Stay safe and I’ll see you next week 🏖️
The subtle anti-Trump aesthetic of Etsy’s quiet resistance merch
For people who want to wear their opposition to President Donald Trump on their sleeve without being too conspicuous, there’s the subtle anti-Trump world of Etsy.
During Trump’s first term, Democrats were loudly proclaiming “Resist.” During former President Joe Biden’s time in office conservatives used “Let’s Go Brandon” as a euphemism for how they really felt about him. But today, anti-Trump messages can be much more veiled, from “8647” to coded ways to communicate the not-safe-for work sentiment that can be abbreviated “FDT.”
Etsy, which saw its revenue grow last year despite a drop in gross merchandise sales, has all that and more written across t-shirts. It’s all part of an emerging genre of almost quaint Trump 2.0 resistance design that the site collects into a category it calls “subtle left leaning.”
Former FBI director James Comey’s since-deleted social media post showing an image of seashells arranged to say “8647” has brought the slogan to a wider audience, with “86” being hospitality-industry slang for kicking someone out of a restaurant and “47” standing for Trump being the 47th president. Though Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service over whether the slogan was intended as a threat toward Trump, Republicans used “8646” as an anti-Biden message before, and it’s not necessarily meant as an incitement to violence but a way to signal opposition to Trump in just four numbers.
On Etsy, “8647” doesn’t look threatening at all, written in flowers on a butterfly in one t-shirt design and over the stems of a dandelion in another. Another shirt obscures the message even more with an image of four dominoes with dots that total up to eight, six, four, and seven.
Generally, these designs embed anti-Trump messages into otherwise apolitical illustrations of flowers, butterflies, books, and dogs, like the “French bulldog, Doodle, Toy fox terrier” t-shirt that uses dog breeds as a stand-in for “FDT.” A coffee-themed version spells out the initials in acrostic — “Foamy, Double shot, Tea latte.” A pasta version says “Fettuccine, Ditalini, Tortellini.” One turns the acronym into a message about self-improvement: “Flourish • Dream • Thrive.”
These shirts are meant to go unnoticed, with slogans that likely won’t be caught by the passing eye. Some shirts write out “FDT” messages in tiny type — like the small scribbles on a t-shirt with an illustration of strawberries — or hide them in a larger image, as the creator of another t-shirt did with an elaborate mandala with “8647” woven subtly into the design. Others are designed like typical tourist-town tees that say “Gulf of Mexico.” It’s a form of protest that just so happens to look like a shirt you maybe bought on vacation a few years ago.
Resistance to Trump so far looks different in his second term than his first, and as Etsy’s “subtle left leaning” section shows, that sometimes means it’s less conspicuous instead of more.
Previously in Yello:
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This study found the limits of digital political ads
A new study suggests digital political ads aren’t actually very good at persuading voters, but it might have something to do with the fact that’s not how campaigns use them.
To test the effectiveness of political ads on Facebook and Instagram, researchers from Meta and outside academic institutions removed presidential campaign ads completely for some Meta app users for six weeks before Election Day 2020. It was part of Meta’s U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study, a massive research effort which already published results of findings including a study last year about users who deactivated their accounts before the election.
The new study, published this month with the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that after removing political campaign ads from participants’ feeds, there was “no detectable effects” in that time across traits like political knowledge, campaign contributions, candidate favorability, or turnout.
“These results echo some prior experimental literature that has failed to find significant effects of online political ads,” the study’s authors wrote, but the study also notes the kinds of ads campaigns are running on Meta platforms. By and large, these aren’t ads designed to make an argument for or against a candidate, but to fundraise.
The study found 46% of presidential campaign digital ads sought donations compared with 26% that were persuasive. An additional 17% of ads were designed to collect user information and 5.5% were for merchandise sales. In other words, nearly seven in 10 political ads during the final weeks of the campaign were about getting either donations or your email address or phone number, presumably so campaigns can keep asking you for donations over email or text. “Relatively few ads were aimed at persuasion and mobilization,” the study’s authors wrote.
The news feed is not where campaigns are looking to change hearts and minds, it’s where they’re looking for small-dollar donors, and in the closing weeks before Election Day, candidates mostly target their digital ads at their pre-existing supporters. The study found digital ads for the Democratic presidential ticket were mostly shown to self-identified Democrats and those for the Republican ticket were mostly shown to self-identified Republicans.
Digital ad spending rose from between 2% and 3% of all political ads spending in 2016 up to 18% in 2020, which amounted to $1.6 billion, according to the study. While this spending might not directly make a difference in how people vote, it still plays a valuable role in a campaign’s overall strategy because it makes money. Researchers said at the upper end of their confidence intervals they found the amount that campaigns made from digital fundraising ads exceeded how much they spent on them.
Have you seen this?
Meta to start removing expired ads from political = archive. The impact of the Ad Library has been significant in helping Americans better understand election tactics that campaigns typically don't want voters or the media to see. [Axios]
This is what Elon Musk’s personal feed on X looks like. He follows more than 1,000 people: right-wing influencers, conspiracy theorists, anti-transgender activists, and dozens of his own superfans. His feed represents a flattering alternate reality filled with boundless praise — for him, for Tesla, for X, for his politics. [The New York Times]
Musk to step back from political spending: “I think I’ve done enough.” “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason,” he said. [Politico]
Well wishes for Biden. Thoughts and prayers are pouring in for former President Joe Biden, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Meanwhile, Trump is facing criticism from his former vice president and the chance of no mediating role for the U.S. in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. [Whig]
History political design
"Mothers for Mamie" button (ca. 1956). This button for Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie played up the first lady's role as America's first mother in the race against Adlai Stevenson, who was divorced and single.
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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