Description: Viral image
Circulating since: May 2004
Status: Authentic / Dates from Bush administration
Email example contributed by Mindy, April 29, 2010:
Subject: Small U.S. company
Small business is alive and well in America !
* Check out the clothing label from a small US company.*
Analysis: In addition to standard laundering instructions, the French-language product label depicted above says, "Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui."
Translation: "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him."
The photo is authentic and the label quite real, though both date from 2004, when Tom Bihn, a U.S. manufacturer of tote bags, backpacks, and briefcases, placed the label on several of its products sold in Canada. The company's tongue-in-cheek explanation at the time was that it was a joke aimed at its own founder and president, Tom Bihn. However, most people read it as a partisan dig at President George W. Bush (and they were probably correct).
Though Tom Bihn products no longer carry the label, images of it began circulating again in 2010, making it appear as though the insult was intended for President Obama (it wasn't).
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Sources and further reading:
Anti-Bush Clothing/Product Label
Netlore Archive, 2004Shirts Sport French Insults to President
Associated Press, 23 February 2004Bag Maker Finds Profits Bagging Bush
Reuters, 30 April 2004Designer Rolls Out T-Shirts Sporting French Insults Against President
Associated Press, 23 April 2004Tom Bihn - The Label and the T-Shirt
"This all began as an inside joke aimed (we think) at the president of our company, Tom Bihn. Many people have concluded the care label refers to other presidents - what can we say?"
Last updated 07/23/10
