Since the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump last Saturday, the mood online has been understandably tense. Far-right extremists are calling for violence, militias are recruiting, and everyone, it seems, has a conspiracy theory about what led to the shooting. But in the corners of the internet where people aren’t rallying behind Trump, they’re getting pretty angry at a sticker company for endorsing him.
It began almost immediately after news of the shooting broke, when Sticker Mule, a direct-to-consumer company that allows people to order customized products, sent an email to customers with the subject line “Trump 2024.” Signed by the company’s co-founder Anthony Constantino, the email, and similar messages on X and Instagram—said that “the more people realize that there are compassionate, good-hearted people out there supporting Trump, the sooner the hate will end.” He also said, “By the way, this week, get a T-shirt for $4 (normally $19),” while suggesting customers buy a shirt supporting the former president.
The email was not well received on social media.
On various platforms, customers posted messages indicating they were dissatisfied. “I thought: ‘What? Did we need this?’” Offered by a TikTokker“All they had to say was nothing.” Someone wrote on the stickers subreddit. Another claimed the company was trying to “capitalize” about the event. There was parodies, Breakups, marketing consultingAn X user responded to the company’s message, calling the email “condescending.” Some began to refer to the ordeal as “Door stickers 2024.”
Putting aside the idea of sending the email to a group of customers who might not want it, the uproar signals a shift in the climate of online political discussion in the U.S. right now. Merchandising is out of control, and when you’re a company like Sticker Mule, where people are going to make merch for all sorts of political causes, sending an email like the one Constantino wrote puts you in the center of the ring.
Of course, as The Verge pointed out this weekThat may have been the goal all along. While some Sticker Mule customers are vowing to stop using the company’s services, others are rallying behind it, defending it. in X and Instagram. Meanwhile, other sticker companies, such as StickerGiant, are Post videos about their company’s values and then respond “I don’t know what you mean 😎” when users point out the topicality of their posts. Indeed, the online battle over companies that make stickers that people use to spread messages in real life has become a new front in the online discussion about the future of America.
