December 17, 2010

Need a WikiLeaks Condom? Maxipad? Dog Sweater?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Since WikiLeaks first made waves back in 2009, the site’s secret document dumps have spawned myriad political debates, international pearl-clutching, and blog pandemonium. But that’s not all: Businesses, artists, and advertisers are now capitalizing on the whistleblower site’s near daily headline-grabbing (as well as founder Julian Assange’s newfound celebrity), creating strange leaps of logic to tie things like maxipads to Assange and WikiLeaks’s cache. Below are a few of the weirdest products inspired by the WikiLeaks hype.

Condoms

Considering the rape allegations of Assange hinge on his not using a condom, possibly the most contentious item in the WikiLeaks product empire is the DickiLeaks condom. According to Condomania, DickiLeaks condoms claim to “leak more than the truth!” Realizing perhaps that advertising a condom that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, that is, you know, to protect against STIs and pregnancy, Condomania adds a disclaimer: “Um, please note that none of the above is true. We lied….DickiLeaks condoms do provide unsurpassed protection and do not leak.” Well, that’s a reLeak, I mean relief.

Sanitary Pads

Butterfly, a sanitary pad company, unveiled two billboards recently in Pakistan’s capital city of Karachi. There’s also a print campaign and a third billboard in the works. The tongue-in-cheek slogan is: “WikiLeaks… Butterfly doesn’t.” It’s only been a few days since the ads have gone up, but photos of the billboard have gone viral, according to Pakistan’s Express Tribune. While these pads may do nothing to stop the flow of… information, it’s rather refreshing to see a feminine hygiene product conveyed with intentional humor, as opposed to the unintentional ridiculousness of commercials showing frolicking in fields and twirling in slow-motion on the beach. 

eBooks

Despite the fact that the WikiLeaks documents are available for free, author Heinz Duthel took excerpts from the latest cables release and turned them into an eBook for the Kindle on Amazon’s UK site. This has caused a stink from WikiLeaks supporters and Amazon users, who have accused the site of hypocrisy. Amazon did, after all, ban WikiLeaks from hosting on their servers. Amazon countered with a disclaimer, putting the phrase “[DOES NOT CONTAIN TEXT OF CABLES]” after the eBook’s already unwieldy title of WikiLeaks Documents Expose US Foreign Policy Conspiracies: All cables with tags from 1-5000. Amazon would also like you to know that customers who purchased Duthel’s WikiLeaks Documents Expose US Foreign Policy Conspiracies: All cables with tags from 1-5000 also bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Dracula.

Dog Sweaters, Onesies, Skateboards, Oh My!

Taking it to the e-streets are people on Zazzle, an e-commerce site where anyone can design and create items, like mugs, t-shirts, and totebags, for retail. Of the 36 billion items on Zazzle, there are now over 1,000 WikiLeaks-related wares. The products range from the somewhat expected, “I need to take a WikiLeak” t-shirt to your not-so-typical “heart heart heart heart [x 37] WikiLeaks” ribbed doggie tank top. Also in the roster are skateboards, newborn onesies, iPhone skins, and iPad cases that double as marriage proposals.

Weirdness is a top predictor for whether something goes viral online, second only to inclusion of cats, so it’s not surprising that products like these are making the rounds and making people money. I mean, remember when Obama won the presidency and someone turned his likeness into a $35 gold-colored dildo? So, if you’re looking for WikiLeaks-themed gifts this holiday season, you won’t be in short supply. Personally, I’d rather have the gift of TRUTH, but, not gonna lie, I wouldn’t turn down the onesie either.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate