This company, Reactee, has been around for a while now but they still haven't gotten noticed on a large scale. You can custom design a shirt which will have a # that someone can send a text message to and then they will receive a predetermined text message response from you.
This is a GREAT idea, but I would never endorse Reactee...solely because it costs $20 per shirt. On a mass scale, this could be a great business, especially if you serve an advertisement up with the text message while providing a meaningful service that people value.
My initial reaction was that this would play well with non-profits and political parties, but its success depends on how you utilize the shirt and what you expect to gain from it. Today as I was walking home from work I passed by a bunch of street-beat workers for some non-profit looking for signatures, but it's really your money they want...
the same kids who will come up to you and say "how are you, would you sign this petition to help ______". So you stop and get ready to sign their petition and then they pounce, "If you give $__ it will really make a difference!", just as you are prepared to sign the petition. Well at that point I don't sign the petition cause then they'll have on record who the cheap ass was that started ignoring them as soon as they started talking about money.
...so I found that I've conditioned myself to avoid any and all form of eye contact with them as I pass by. This is quite similar to the Banner Blindness affect, where if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, then it's something that's just too much like a damn duck and I don't like duck.(Truthfully, I like ducks, who doesn't?) Basically, I avoid eye contact with street-beat folk, for guilt reasons or whatever else reason, so in the end I would never actually get a good look at their shirt and thus I wouldn't text whatever number they have on their clothing.
Now in politics it is a similar situation, especially in New Hampshire during primary season. I feel bad for people living in NH during the primary election cycle, cause their towns, neighborhoods, and homes are swarmed with volunteers, pamphlets and phone calls, OH MY! So I wouldn't expect them to text message based on the shirt of someone coming to their door.
But where I do see it possibly working in Politics is on Main St with the street-beat volunteers:
Its good for the environment. Don't hand out pamphlets because everyone knows that it's garbage the minute you hand it away. Instead, have people text you for a your policy stance on Iraq, Social Security, Health Care, Immigration, or taxes. In 5 years, the new saying in politics will go "If you can't fit it into a text message, then it's not worth saying."
Volunteers work in teams comprised of 5 individuals. Each volunteer wears a different shirt emphasizing a different policy issue with a separate message.
The street team can "shout"-"say"-"beg" to folks passing: "Interested in Bill Richardson's position on Iraq, text this number!" Nothing exchanged but a smile.
The volunteers would be spaced out about 15 yards apart, so as people walk down the street its a veritable gauntlet of policy issues that they have the option to learn more about.
BEST OF ALL: if they text you, you know WHO texted you. So come December/January when the primaries are getting near, you have the cell phone number of a potential voter. If they are going to text message your tshirt, I bet they are the same type of person who will actually vote.(future research project...not it!)
That's how I see it working in politics. But I think there are countless ways that this type of interaction can be effective in business, branding, networking, dating(?), or whatever. The majority of the people I know have cell phones with no data plans, so texting is the 'greenest'/best way to communicate in real-time with a passer-by on the street.(Especially the person who won't stop to sign a petition)
