T-Shirt Reading at the Missouri State Fair

Tag : logo T-shirt
T-Shirt Reading at the Missouri State Fair
By: Denny Banister, Missouri Farm Bureau - 08/11/2008

During the days of the great depression, some people earned moneyby wearing billboards hanging from their shoulders by straps,advertising any number of establishments. While we are not facinganother great depression, we do see people standing on streetcorners wearing or holding billboards and signs, some in costumes,advertising everything from pizza to going-out-of-business sales.

Many modern clothing manufacturers have very identifiable logos andcapitalize on the advertising value by printing the logo and theirbrand name on the clothing they sell. It started with blue jeansmany years ago with a tag and a patch above the rear pocket, andhas expanded to brand identification on the fronts and backs ofshirts, dress shirts and blouses, belts and shoes.

What I find amusing is people, especially young people, feel theymust wear the clothing with the obvious brand identification, andthey even pay a good deal extra for the privilege. Personally, Ifeel if a company wants to use my body to advertise their brandname, they will provide me the clothing free of charge or pay me todo their advertising. Unfortunately, I have had no offers.

T-shirts are different -- they used to come in any color you wantedas long as it was white. Then an array of colors, followed bytie-dyes, became popular. Now it is difficult to find peoplewearing t-shirts as outer garments that do not make some kind ofstatement, whether political, religious, humorous or otherwise.

Here at the Missouri State Fair, one of my favorite pastimes isreading t-shirts. This can lead to trouble if one is not discreet-- it would not be difficult to be mistaken as a dirty old man,even for one so innocent as I. One girl wore a shirt playing onthat angle -- it read, "Stop looking at my t-shirt."

T-shirt reading at the Missouri State Fair, it's free and it's fun.The State Fair runs through Aug. 17 in Sedalia.

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