They wear cynicism proudly
Hi, loser.
No, not you. That’s the slogan on a popular T-shirt sold to teenagers as part of a booming trend in “attitude” clothes that is doing exactly what it was designed to do: amuse the kids wearing them while appalling their parents and teachers.
With the back-to-school shopping season in full swing, teens are snatching up the T-shirts from companies such as It’s Happy Bunny, which features a cute cartoon rabbit offering commentary such as “You’re ugly and that’s sad.” Across the country, T-shirts with acerbic, flirty and downright raunchy messages are reproducing like rabbits.
It’s one financial bright spot in an otherwise lackluster back-to-school season in which the National Retail Federation forecasts that sales will drop 8% this year.
At Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for instance, “attitude” tees are up 50% over last year, when the world’s biggest retailer sold 20 million of them. And online, searches for the rude rabbit whose T-shirts spout such barbs as “I know how you feel. I just don’t care” are up 558% in the last two months on Yahoo Shopping.
The trend concerns educators, who are fixing for the usual fights over low-rise jeans and bare midriffs, and now must address questionable tees as well.
Parents are uncomfortable too: 44% of parents in a July survey said they were unhappy with the slogans on their children’s T-shirts, said Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group.
Some blunt-spoken Happy Bunny messages, including “It’s cute how stupid you are,” wouldn’t make the cut at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Ill.
“We consider that harassment, and we just don’t allow it,” Principal Jack Lorenz said.
Some adults are not as worried.
Nicole Johnson was sporting a T-shirt with the phrase “There’s enough of me to go around” last week while shopping at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill. She wouldn’t wear the shirt to school but said her parents didn’t object to her wearing it while she was out and about.
“They just think it’s a T-shirt. It’s not like I’m a stripper,” said the 18-year-old Wheeling, Ill., resident, who also has a “Two boyfriends are better than one” tee in her closet.
In a larger sense, the T-shirt trend symbolizes the enduring desire of every generation of teens to express itself and the modern idea that you can say just about anything. In this environment, it’s not surprising that innocent notions don’t cut it on T-shirts.
“Every teen retailer has cynical shirts because it’s a generation whose values are almost completely cynical,” said Eric Beder, retail analyst for Brean Murray & Co. in New York. “They’re so clued into marketing and the wired world that they look at things with a more jaundiced eye than their parents.”
Even Disney characters have evolved with the times to display a sassier side, including a Tinker Bell tee pleading “Spoil me.”
At the Woodfield Sears, Happy Bunny tees came with nearly 20 messages, including “Boys lie and kind of stink” and “Teachers are great. Whatever. Can I have an A?”
The retailer began carrying Happy Bunny goods two years ago as a test and found that they were a hit, particularly with teens 13 to 18.
“It was a ‘Wow,’ ” Sears spokeswoman Lee Antonio said, noting that Sears has since expanded its commitment to the line.
The increased floor space for smarmy T-shirts hasn’t come without its setbacks for Sears. The retailer pulled a Happy Bunny T-shirt from shelves in Florida that said “Seriously. The old people have got to go.” The creator of Happy Bunny, Jim Benton, sees the positive in such flaps.
“The upshot of the Sears incident was that Sears has increased its orders for spring,” he said.
Happy Bunny’s first big break came about five years ago, when teen retailer Hot Topic took a chance on the merchandise.
The sales “were staggering,” recalls Carole Postal, president of New York-based CopCorp Licensing, which represents Happy Bunny.
For two years, Happy Bunny and Hot Topic had an exclusive relationship, but then the brand branched out into other retailers, including Claire’s, Spencer Gifts and music retailers.
“Lo and behold, the demand was created to go a little more mainstream, so we’re probably one of the top-selling properties today in Kohl’s, Penney’s, Sears and Mervyn’s,” Postal said.
Happy Bunny has more than 200 taglines and creates new ones constantly, Benton said.
“I don’t really determine the stuff that’s on the shelves, and neither does the retailer,” he said. “The consumers do. If the consumer doesn’t like something, it disappears.”
It is hardly the first time T-shirts bearing personal expressions have created such a buzz.
“Happy Bunny is the latest craze, on par with the likes of Team Aniston, Paul Frank and the smiley face of the ‘60s that came back in the ‘90s,” said Shannon Clouston, chief shopper for Shopping.com. Searches on the site for Happy Bunny in July rose by 110% over the same month last year.
There’s reason for parents and school administrators to believe that not all hope is lost.
Though Penney’s said Happy Bunny sold quickly and was just as quickly restocked, two categories of tees are even bigger this season, an executive for the Plano, Texas-based chain said.
“Anything licensed from the movie ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ is still doing very well, and we’re doing really well with vintage tees from the ‘70s or ‘80s,” with such logos as Burger King, Smokey the Bear and Coca-Cola, said Lorrain Hitch, the juniors’ merchandise manager.
