Column: U.S. Senate Race

Company That Printed the “Wrong Larry” Buttons Explains

By Jill Kuraitis, 7-28-08

New West has obtained a copy of this email from Tigereye Designs, the company which printed a button with a photo of Sen. Larry Craig alongside a photo of Sen. Barack Obama.

“We did nothing wrong in the design of the Barack Obama button that mistakenly featured a photo of Larry Craig. When our designer sat down to make this button, he positioned his mouse pointer over a photo of Larry LaRocco. This particular designer uses a fairly wide pointer arrow, which may have been in contact with a photo of Larry Craig. A visual aid has been attached to illustrate our assertion that we are not at fault.”

“Let us be clear: We do not stand behind Larry Craig; we never have stood behind Larry Craig.”

Here is the visual aid mentioned above:

UPDATE: Justin R.L. Hemminger of Tigereye Designs emailed New West, “Everyone was getting a good laugh over this button, so we figured we would, too.”

[End of article]

Comment By Tom von Alten, 7-28-08

ok, that's pretty funny.

Comment By bear bait, 7-28-08

I believe if I had my druthers, I would prefer standing behind Craig to standing in front of him. Safety first.

Comment By Clancy, 7-29-08

I don't know who commissioned these buttons, but shame on LaRocco for not on insisting on an Idaho firm to design and print them. Does using a union shop really matter over using a local Idaho shop?

Comment By Dean Ferguson, 7-29-08

Hey there Clancy,
The LaRocco for U.S. Senate campaign did not commission these buttons. We never heard about them until somebody let us know that these buttons existed. The company without our knowledge dreamed up and advertised the buttons independent of our campaign. The company also apologized to us and we appreciate that.
Dean A. Ferguson
Communications Director
LaRocco for U.S. Senate

Comment By Clancy, 7-29-08

Dean, Sorry I jumped the gun. The initial article I saw did not have anything about Tigereye doing it on their own.

I hope you can ensure reader's that any campaign materials commissioned by LaRocco will be from Idaho companies.

Comment By Wild West, 7-29-08

Somebody commissioned this misinformation, this is no accident!
who submitted the order, who paid for the buttons. There is a road map follow it to the source, it might be very interesting.

Comment By Paul, 7-29-08

I have been a button collector for years and Tigereye Design is about as trustworthy as they come. For all the designs they come up with, this is bound to happen once or twice. Its unfortunate (but funny) that it had to be Larry Craig.

Comment By bikeboy, 7-29-08

Obama might want to consider Larry Craig as a running mate. (A handsome couple! Who can deny?)

Craig could deliver some of the in-the-closet gay Republican vote to Obama. Not a huge constituency, but every little bit helps, huh?

On a more serious note... I join with Clancy in feeling that the LaRocco people should get all their materials from in-state enterprises.

Cheers!

Comment By Bernard, 7-29-08

Should Jim Risch get his materials in-state too? What about Rex Rammell? Why just LaRocco, Clancy & bikeboy?

Comment By trudonna, 7-30-08

It is a pretty ugly (agreed funny) image and creating them "by mistaken click" is lets face it plausible but not a valuable answer. How about accountability? Something like we did it and we are sorry and no one but us is responsible, no campaign ordered or paid for them, it was just our idea and mistake. (if that is true, of course) Then to make it all better, since these have become collectors items and have a street value I am sure - sell them and give the proceeds to Obama/LaRocca. Sounds like a great way to make lemonade out of lemons to me.

Comment By bikeboy, 7-30-08

Bernard: "Should Jim Risch get his materials in-state too? What about Rex Rammell? Why just LaRocco, Clancy & bikeboy?"

I can't speak for Clancy, but here's my reply:

NOT just LaRocco!

ALL of 'em would get points in THIS voter's mind, if they show pocketbook loyalty to Idaho enterprises!

Comment By mike, 7-31-08

“Let us be clear: We do not stand behind Larry Craig; we never have stood behind Larry Craig.” Those poor silly people, if they would only stop and pay attention, they'd see that it's not that you don't want to stand behind Larry Craig; it's that you never want to catch him standing behind you!

This article was printed from www.newwest.net at the following URL: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/company_that_printed_the_wrong_larry_buttons_explains/C108/L108/