i/denti/tee-shirts.

This is why you go to parties. “See that guy?” “Yep—who is he.” “Business partner with Bono’s brother... yeah, they just did this shirt thing. i/denti/tee. Song lyrics on shirts.” “Oh yeah? Tell me more.” Soooo, I got to meet the dude, snag a sample and find out more. (The dude who came up with the idea, not Bono.) It’s song titles on t-shirts with 10 free song iTunes downloads for $35, available at Hard Rock, Best Buy and their website, and only in the U.S. Pricey? Yeah, hafta say, but part of it goes to charity and it’s also eco-friendly, using The Hewson’s* own clothing line, edunonline.com.

I also had the same thought as the girl RIOT™ regarding the current 200+ titles they have available. Two things though. First, they have to appeal to a broad audience. Second and more importantly, there are a lot of song rights to secure, hence the voting system for which titles will be offered next. (Without naming them, one major band didn’t want to grant permission for the title of an all-time classic unless it could be guaranteed additional sales for that song.) This is what you deal with over the two years it took to create and launch a project like this.

As for that $35 price tag, it’s high for a t-shirt and 10 songs, but they’re aware of it. My feeling was that if you push the charity angle a lot more, people would have less of a problem. Barring that, drop it under $20 and this thing would take off without question. (Jennifer Aniston is wearing one as unofficial spokesperson. Which translates to website traffic the next time The Whore Perez Hilton™ shoots her coming out of a club with John Mayer.)

What else... oh yeah.

The LP format of the packaging is cool and from an agency POV, seems like a logical thing for agencies like Anomaly to do. (Droga did their Honeyshed and you know Crispin got a piece of those Burger King video games, especially @ 3+ million copies sold—yeah bitch.) It’s also very much like CNN repurposing its proprietary content recently—the headlines it wrote. It’s a good solution where you can’t create totally new content, instead, why not repackage what you already have? Even though iGod needs more cash like MySpace needs more teen angst, iTunes also benefits in that they’re selling a physical product of something intangible like song lyrics.

Besides, they come in an XXL; because the only thing Americans love more than U2 is that number 6 combo with a Coke Pepsi.

*We’re tight like that, so I get to call them The Hewsons.

Tags: i/denti/tee