The New Hampshire state bird is the purple finch. The official state flower is the purple lilac. Last week, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development announced the designation of the state's first official T-shirt, "Three Wolf Moon," a garment made by Keene-based shirt manufacturer The Mountain.
The black shirt, which features three wolves howling at a full moon, has spent nearly 200 days on Amazon's top 100 list and is among the most-sold apparel items on the site. Steve Boucher, the legislative director of the Division, has said the shirt "is a true New Hampshire success story." He intends to use the shirt as the award for winners of the state's Division of Economic Development's monthly "Innovation Rocks!" initiative.
"If [this campaign to promote the shirt] can generate half of the results that Amazon shoppers are experiencing, we're in awesome shape—every CEO should be wearing this shirt," he said.
It appears, perhaps, the head of New Hampshire's economic development division might be a tad tone-deaf and not aware when he and his state are being made the butt of a joke.
A great number of the more than 1,600 reviews—many of which give the shirt the coveted five-star ranking—are dripping with sarcasm about the shirt's design.
As "Jason" from "Backwater, Alabama" writes, "Since I didn't want to be the only person in Alabama without a Three Wolf Moon short-sleeve T-shirt, I ordered one a few months back, thinking, 'What else am I going to wear to formal dinners? My tuxedo T-shirt?'" He goes on to describe how the shirt's magical qualities affected him even before he'd had a chance to put it on when the seductive UPS delivery woman insisted she would have to "inspect [his] package." He concludes the shirt is "so powerful, and affected my life so profoundly, that had it been around forever, it most certainly would have been given to baby Jesus by a fourth Magi."
The second most "helpful" review of the shirt reads, "Unfortunately I already had this exact picture tattooed on my chest, but this shirt is very useful in colder weather." Most reviews, though, focus on the shirt's magical qualities, suggesting that it drives women mad with desire. The general tenor of the comments is that the purchaser, while once a low-class schlub, is somehow transformed into a person of sophistication, charisma and virility.
While the makers of the shirt probably couldn't care less what drives the astronomical sales of the garment, the New Hampshire Economic Development division notes that many of the comments are "satirical" without appearing to understand what the subject of the satire is. Instead, Boucher says, "What started off as a tongue-in-cheek take on a cool T-shirt has resulted in a worldwide acclaim for a very creative and growing Granite State business. When every social media outlet as well as the mainstream press is covering your story, you know that you've created something big." The division's blog mentions that the shirt has been worn by "luminaries ranging from The Office's Rainn Wilson… to Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder." There is no mention that both are comedians known for taking sharp stabs at the absurdities of America's culture or lack of it.
Perhaps it's true that any media coverage is good media coverage, but promoting the shirt seems like an odd choice for a place that's eagerly trying to attract high-tech industries and other international businesses. The shirt would seem more likely to attract purveyors of pork rinds and those nifty baseball hats with can holders on either side that facilitate beer drinking.
