I discovered the Fuck Off Sarah Palin T-shirt just as my terror at having Palin as a VP was peaking. I thought, if anything captures the zeitgeist right now, it's this. I wanted to know who was behind it. Kim Berlin is a creative director who decided to get political after she became supremely pissed at the Palin campaign. Go get a shirt or a button for yourself, and let the conversations begin. Proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood in Palin's name.



What led to the first shirt?

When Sarah Palin's Vice Presidential candidacy was announced, I got really angry. Not necessarily that she accepted the nomination, but how so many people seemed to be so fooled by her. I thought, "What the hell? This woman, who nobody's ever heard of, who has absolutely zero credentials, could be our next VP? She's not presidential material by any stretch of the imagination." You have to think of someone in terms of being presidential material when they're a vice president. And let's face it, McCain is no spring chicken.

Late one of the nights of the convention, I had to take a taxi from the train station back to my home in north Jersey. Making conversation, the cab driver said, "So, how about that Sarah Palin!" I remained quiet as I wasn't quite sure which way he was going to go. And then he remarked, "Did you see how she was just stroking the head of her child? Wow. That lady's unbelievable!" He was completely enamored with her. A person from right in my own backyard. I couldn't believe it. And I thought, "That's it."

I'm a creative director by trade, so at work the next morning I quickly whipped up the simplest slug of type I could. I didn't feel this woman was worthy of any clever copywriting or a well thought-out design. I simply took my message, printed it out on heat transfer paper and took it home. I had a sample t-shirt left over from a client pitch that just happened to be this great organic cotton. So I made one for myself. And that was it. I washed it once and wore it out the next day.

It was a really interesting experience introducing the shirt to the world. I started out feeling very proud of it... but some people were giving me the stink eye, a little bit. I don't think they knew exactly what it meant, as the developments were so new at that point. But when you're dropping the F-bomb smack-dab in the middle of your chest, in the 'burbs no less, you're bound to get some sort of reaction. So as I went along that morning, I kind of buttoned up my cardigan a little bit. But then I got to work and people said, "What, are you kidding? Wear it open!" So I did.

I went out and about, and I couldn't even believe the response. People were into it. It was very cool. I even kind of relished the odd dirty look. That's what this is for, after all; I want to open up the dialogue. I want people to talk about this.



Right now you're wearing the pin, which I love. I think it's a modern update to the traditional stars-and-stripes, red-and-blue political pins.

I feel at one point in time, the red, white, and blue may have stood for something, and that something was hopeful. But the connotations have changed. All the propaganda surrounding the race has been bastardized into this... I keep calling it a vaudeville show. I feel like it's a freakin' vaudeville show. All the manufactured drama colors the public's opinion and overshadows the facts.

When did you set up the website?

I have a Facebook friend who told me one of his colleagues wanted a shirt. I told him, "Oh, it's only an iron-on." But she wanted one anyway. So I made one for her and sent it over. She said she would love to know if i had a site so she could blog about it. At that point I said to myself, "Oh, crap, if people want to blog about this I have to have someplace for their readers to go." That's when I decided to set up the website. While I've designed tons for my clients, it's the first I've ever actually done, hands-on myself. I probably shouldn't admit that! I know I didn't create it the right way... I was communicating with my cousin who's a programmer and he wanted to do the whole thing properly, using CSS, tracking hits and the whole shebang. And I thought, yeah, that would be great, but I just want this up, I want it now, I want it to look exactly as I want it to, and I want to be able to do it myself. So I quickly made it in Dreamweaver, and it was done. It was up within a week of her announcing her candidacy.

I'm not out there promoting it at all; maybe the odd email to folks I already know. It's really getting around just by word-of-mouth alone. Luckily, Refinery29 covered it, and that's actually how it's gotten the most exposure.

Have you gotten any hate mail?

No. Not a single thing. I was hoping for some! That would have been great. I'd like to hear both sides. No, the only thing I saw that was negative were some comments on a few blogs. One was, "Where would you wear this? I couldn't wear it in front of my children." OK, totally understood. That's responsible. And then there was a comment recently about the grammar. But that's really all.




I think my favorite part of the whole thing might be that a percentage of the sales are going to be donated to Planned Parenthood in Sarah's name. Could you talk a little about that?

I'm really glad about that too. It's not a unique idea; there are all these emails circulating about ways one can challenge Sarah Palin's position. One of the emails I received suggested to make donations in her name, because she's not a supporter and she'll receive a thank-you note for each donation made in her name. And I thought that was perfect. I don't want to support a candidate's campaign specifically, because that isn't going to do any "real" good. They have plenty of money. But if I contribute to a cause that I believe in, that's actually making a difference.

Truth be told, I'm not a political person in any way, shape, or form. But I have never cared about a cause the way I care about this one. What pisses me off is that so many of our fellow citizens so fooled by her. And people remark, "Well, if the Republicans win this year, then it's our fault for being stupid, so shame on us." Which I think is true. But, man, how disappointing would that be?

After the success of this project, do you have any other ideas coming down the pipeline?

People keep asking me that. Officially, I'm going to say no. This is my one-hit-wonder. I don't even know if I'm going to leave the site up after the election. I'm definitely going to run out of merchandise... I'm just printing to meet demand. I'm not making lots. Hopefully the message becomes irrelevant really fast and this becomes a non-issue!

Yes, ideally this whole thing is dead by November.

Yeah. It's been a little stressful because I want to make everybody happy and get them their stuff as soon as possible, which means I have to turn everything around really, really fast. It has a limited life-span. Literally one more month, and then it's all over.