Give Me a Brand Name

“Give me a brand name!” cried the shirt. It hung on a discount rack outside of a clothing store, drooping with all the other unwanted shirts. “Give me a brand name!” it cried to the passing pedestrians.

Very few even gave it a second glance, but this did not stop the shirt. To everyone that passed by it pleaded, “Give me a brand name!”

One day as the sun shone down onto the shirt — a hot, burning sun that keeps people indoors — a man walked by and heard the shirt’s cry.

“Why do you want to have a brand name?” the man asked the shirt.

“Because then people would want me. People would recognize me and everyone would know I exist.”

The man went into the store and paid for the shirt.

“Thank you so much!” the shirt cried to the man, tears forming on its cotton surface and then almost instantly being evaporated by the hot sun. “You’ve saved my life!”

The man took the shirt to his office. He worked as a designer for clothing in a brand name store — you know the store.

“Have you designed something for me?” the shirt asked.

The man sighed. “What now?” he asked distractedly.

The shirt could not detect the apathy in the man’s voice but instead quivered with excitement. Finally its dream would come true.

After weeks and weeks of simply hanging in the man’s closet in his office, the shirt was sent to be printed. It could not contain its glee. To everyone who handled it the shirt said, “You are doing a wonderful job! thank you so much!” But once again the shirt could not detect the apathy in all the workers’ actions.

Finally it was on a conveyor belt with thousands of other shirts. The shirt tried to talk to them but they sat lifeless and bored. The shirt figured they wanted to be left alone in this wonderful moment.

The shirt was stamped with the clever ad with a logo of the company and then hung up by machine with the thousands of other shirts with the same image. The shirt beamed with pride. It looked around at all its twin and thought “Now! Finally!”

– – –

“I’m looking for the shirt I brought down,” said the man who had bought it off the discount rack.

“What’s it look like?” asked an employee.

“Well, it looks like all these.”