the cows are back in town

January 3, 2007 11:54 AM

A long time ago I cherished a shirt. It had a drawing of a whale on it, below text that read "Save The Cows." A speech bubble attached to the whale read "I am not a cow." Either that or the roles were reversed. Or they could have been different animals entirely - though I doubt that. Where did this adorable tee come from? There is nothing - NOTHING - more inside. Except your answers. I hope.
posted by thejoshu to clothing, beauty, & fashion (10 comments total)

no clue about the shirt (sorry!) but now i want it too. i eagerly await responses with you...
posted by mittenedsex at 12:08 PM on January 3, 2007

I don't think this is it, but the shirts are similar shirts... I'm still looking for ya
posted by ForeverDcember at 12:27 PM on January 3, 2007

Cows Ice Cream in PEI has been producing t-shirts with pictures of cows doing various things in a distinctive style for a looooong time. Probably a decade or more. The t-shirts are strangely wide-spread, presumably due to people buying them while on vacation to PEI, the province's #2 industry after potatoes. Was it in the style of the current Cows t-shirts? The overall style hasn't changed in years, although they get new designs regularly.
posted by GuyZero at 12:29 PM on January 3, 2007

Could it be a Larson? He loves him some bovines. (See also ^ for more ideas.)
posted by rob511 at 2:46 PM on January 3, 2007

This is a long shot, but I bought a mug at Ben & Jerry's about 10 years ago that featured a drawing of cows with the words "eat chicken" below the cows. Maybe the shirt was from Ben & Jerry's? Or maybe, given GuyZero's post, it was from some ice cream company, though not Ben & Jerry's or Cows?
posted by sueinnyc at 6:13 PM on January 3, 2007

What about this, the shirt actually said "Save the Sea Cows" and the whale was actually a manatee (obviously taking offense at having been called a cow)!
posted by B-squared at 6:39 PM on January 3, 2007

I think I have seen this (but can't find it). I am quite familiar with the PEI Cows shirts- I don't think it's one of those. I'll work on it.
posted by kch at 10:35 PM on January 3, 2007

The feud between the "eat more chicken" cattle, and the "eat more beef" chickens, has been a long-running advertising campaign for Chick-Fil-A.

No clue on the whale, though.
posted by Myself at 11:08 PM on January 3, 2007

Oh man, I was doing just fine until you mentioned Chick-Fil-A, the nearest one of which is about a thousand miles from here.
posted by neuron at 11:21 PM on January 3, 2007

I am pretty sure there was no marketing dimension to this (beyond the selling of tees). No vegetarian or poultrarian connection fits neatly. It's definitely most in sync with Gary Larson's humor - hm... It was also more simple (and thus more effective and memorable) than most of the suggestions presented thus far. Thanks so much!
posted by thejoshu at 1:05 AM on January 4, 2007