EXIT-Deutschland has caused a stir among the extreme right with a Trojan shirt. The organization had T-shirts distributed at the right-wing ‘Rock for Germany’ festival in Gera on August 6th. The subversive intelligence of the shirts was only revealed in the privacy of the owners’ homes.
This in from Deutsche Welle (the German news service):
Hundreds of free T-shirts handed out at a weekend right-wing rock festival in the eastern German state of Thuringia contained a secret surprise. Upon washing, the original graphic faded to reveal a clandestine message. German skinheads who took home free T-shirts after a music festival on Saturday were in for a big surprise. The shirts, which bore a skull and crossbones symbol and the word ‘Hardcore Rebels,’ faded upon washing to reveal a hidden message: “What happened to your shirt can happen to you. We can help you break with right-wing extremism.”The T-shirts were the work of Exit Deutschland, a group that helps young people transition out of militant right-wing lifestyles. “With these T-shirts we wanted to make ourselves known among right-wingers, especially amongst young ones who are not yet fully committed to the extreme right,” said Exit founder Bernd Wagner.About 250 of the shirts were distributed at the ninth edition of the Rock für Deutschland concert, in the town of Gera, in eastern Germany. Around 600 neo-Nazis were in attendance at the concert, which is run by the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party.
And this from Der Spiegel:
Still, the initiative to outwit the neo-Nazis is unlikely to prompt immediate re-evaluation of their values, Wagner said. “But our name will be stored in their minds. And when they consider leaving the scene at some point, they will remember us,” . . . The group’s main goal was to reach young right-wing extremists “in a situation where they would hopefully be alone at home.”A marketing expert in Hamburg, who wished to remain anonymous, came up with the idea together with his colleagues . . . His firm paid for the T-shirts to be printed.
Never underestimate THE POWER OF DESIGN! or THE SUBVERSION OF SATIRE!
