"I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

"I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

Surrey, BC.
November 29, 2003

It started with a t-shirt featuring the Canadian flag and the phrase "I
am not American" translated into multiple languages, a web site with a
provocative name - iamnotamerican.com - and a few borrowed dollars to get it
all going. It resulted in the shirt's designer receiving abuse and threats,
and one U.S-based website owner trying to shut him down. Now, Surrey (B.C.)
resident Trevor Wilson is expecting more of the same after releasing new
designs and additional merchandise featuring the same controversial message.

Thanks to 'advances in modern technology' it is now possible for anyone
with an original design to offer a range of products without the need to
purchase and maintain a large inventory. Trevor has taken full advantage of
this by offering a selection of merchandise such as stickers, mousepads,
coffee cups and clothing with one of his seventeen multi-lingual or single
language designs.

"I can make all five of my original designs available, whereas before I
could only sell the one design." Trevor said Saturday. "I have also made
each of twelve languages available by themselves on their own products. The
shirt featuring Arabic only, for example, looks great! Custom designs are
also possible now, with any combination of available languages."

Having refined the design since the original 'Canadian Flag' shirt went
on sale in February, the language line-up has changed slightly, with the
addition of Spanish and Dutch and the deletion of Afrikaans. Also available
in addition to the two new languages are Arabic, French, German, Japanese,
Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, Chinese, Russian and of course, English.

Newly added designs include all twelve languages without a background,
or with backdrops such as the circular 'Peace' symbol. In a move that is
bound to upset some 'Stateside', other designs feature the American flag
beneath the international symbol of prohibition, either by itself or with
the the multilingual "I am not American" translations.

Prompted by a personal experience over ten years ago, Trevor had been
toying with the idea ever since. In August of 2001 he decided to finally
put his plans in motion, but tragic events the next month resulted in a
decision to delay release for at least one more year. In 2003, the site was
closed for two days out of respect for the many victims of September 11.

Over and above the basic concept of the design (after all, how dare
someone want to say they were not American?), Wilson's sense of humour has
upset some. At one stage an image was featured of U.S. President George W.
Bush 'wearing' one of the shirts. This resulted in a resident of Bush's
home state - Texas - starting a campaign of harassment in order to close the
web site. About that, Trevor said "the odd thing is that this person ran a
'free speech' web site. It seems they didn't truly believe in the concept
of free speech."

Trevor also points out an interesting example of irony. The only
company offering the 'small-run' service he is utilising to make all his
designs and merchandise available is located in the U.S.A. "I find it
amusing that an American company is producing something that says 'I am not
American'," he said. "Unfortunately though, no Canadian company offers this
service, but the minute they can, I will be there giving them my business".

The full range of "I am not American" merchandise is available on the
internet at http://www.iamnotamerican.com .