In the United States, we’ve recently seen controversy over politicians using musicians’ songs without permission. In Canada, the pols seem to be using band logos, instead.
A trio of Canadian politicians have unveiled shirts that use Nine Inch Nails’ familiar “NIN” logo, and without even getting into their political views and stances, we’ll just assume it’s without approval from Trent Reznor. Along with the slogan “Building Alberta Together,” the shirts celebrate the joint efforts of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, and Naheed Nenshi, the mayor of Calgary.
Put the first letter of their surnames together as an acronym and you get N-I-N. And that’s what’s splashed across a black baseball shirt with white sleeves, complete with boxed in logo and backwards second N. It’s a shirt that Nine Inch Nails have probably sold at concerts for the past 25 years.
The National Post called the trio “the most powerful politicians” in the Canadian province, and the Huffington Post Canada says the shirts were unveiled this week when “Notley met with Nenshi and Iveson for ‘substantive talks’ about flood mitigation.”
So far, it does not seem like Reznor has noticed.
From the National Post:
You can already see where this is going.
Having overthrown the generational yoke of Progressive Conservative oppression, the most powerful politicians in Alberta unveiled their new club T-shirt: Notley Iveson Nenshi — Premier Rachel Notley, and mayors Don Iveson and Naheed Nenshi — their initials, NIN, emblazoned in white on a black T-shirt modelled after the industrial band Nine Inch Nails.
The group’s most famous songs, Hurt and Closer (F— You Like an Animal), are thematically appropriate, given what the province’s taxpayers are going to feel during the next four years.
That’s pretty funny.
But this isn’t the first time Notley has used rock and roll imagery. The Huffington Post Canada notes she crafted a shirt based around Motley Crue’s Theatre of Pain logo, which you can check out here.
View the Nine Inch Nails shirts below…
Naheed Nenshi, Don Iveson, pleased with talks with Rachel Notley http://t.co/QJuhCEpdBQ pic.twitter.com/qZxJJhk4fR
— CBC News (@CBCNews) June 24, 2015
@RachelNotley & @nenshi showing off their new rock t-shirts: Notley Iveson Nenshi: Building Alberta Together #ableg pic.twitter.com/SyfAlIxuRO"
— Gillian Scobie (@GTScobie) June 23, 2015