Bark Obama and John McCanine: underneath all the hype, actually pretty similar.Photo: Courtesy Lori Lambert
Hot on the heels of our revelation earlier this week that both presidential candidates are courting the pet-loving demographic comes news that the pets are loving them right back. PetsVote.com, a Website selling political propaganda for pooches, is the brainchild of Lori Lambert (who is actually a serious person — she’s a senior vice-president muckety-muck at Universal Music). The Website, where you can buy a shirt that endorses either “Bark Obama” or “John McCanine,” was launched this week. Each purchase not only gives a percentage to the pet charity North Shore Animal League, but logs a vote on your pooch’s behalf, as well. (If her sales thus far are any indication, come election day, Bark Obama is going to win by a landslide, despite the fact that the candidate has no pets of his own.)
“We started with rock-and-roll clothing for dogs, concert tees like ‘Muttalica’ and ‘Rage Against the Maltese,’” says Lambert, whose original creations were featured on the Home Shopping Network and at Target. A misheard commentator on NPR was the inspiration for “Bark Obama”; “John McCainine” followed shortly after. The shirts are made in the USA, printed with ecofriendly ink, and go from Chihuahua to mastiff-size. Lambert’s own dog, Louis, is undecided: “He is wearing both shirts until he decides which he prefers. He’ll let me know telepathically.” Though Lambert insists “we don’t discriminate — dogs of all ages, breeds, sexes, and pedigrees may vote,” at seven dog years to a human year, we’re of the mind that your dog must be at least 2.5 years old to pull that lever legally. Otherwise, you know, it would just be ridiculous. —Sarah Maslin Nir
