October 28, 2010 12:24 ET

As Elections Heat Up CafePress Survey Reveals Tea Party Attracts a Mixed Brew

Young, Educated Voters Don't Take Tea With Their Politics While Nearly 40% of Retirees Are Tea'd Off

SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwire - October 28, 2010) -  When it comes to summing up the Tea Party's tenets, it's as simple as a T-shirt.

Sixty five percent of American adults can summarize their opinions of the Tea Party by a T-shirt slogan, according to an October online survey conducted by Harris Interactive^® and commissioned by CafePress, the source for custom printed products.

"With hundreds of thousands of Tea Party designs on the CafePress website, we wanted to take a closer look at the political sentiments behind these hot tees," said CafePress Vice President of Marketing Amy Maniatis. "Our survey shows that CafePress tea party products accurately reflect the mixed brew of political opinions around this emerging party."

Hello pension, hello tension...
Retired adults are tea'd off. This group was the most likely group to select pro-Tea Party slogans that appear on T-shirts as a representation of their point of view. Almost a whopping four in 10 retirees say that "The Current Government is what our Founding Fathers Tried to Prevent," and that they're "Mad as Hell and not Going to Take it Anymore" (37 percent) are statements that represent what they think of the Tea Party.

Younguns at a Tea Party? Not for all the tea in China.
Younger adults declared themselves more likely to rock an anti-Tea T-shirt slogan, selecting the "Hillbillies drink tea?" slogan more than any other group. They were also more likely to nominate the "Mad Hatter" as a party mascot.

The Ivies Prefer Coffee Houses Rather Than Tea Parties
Those with a college degree or more showed off some high-brow vocab they learned at university: they're more likely than the general public to call Tea Partiers "wingnuts" (28% vs. 19% respectively). Collegians are also more likely to show their distaste for tea by politely declining their allegiance to the party and saying "No tea for me" represents what they think of the party (22% vs. 14% respectively).

Say what?
Respondents also had the opportunity to chime in and suggest their own Tea Party slogans. These verbatim responses tended to be very anti-Tea. Responses included "Fox News' Army of Fools" and "We can distort the truth and yell it really loud!" Yet other respondents chose to take a non-political approach by suggesting the party is all about "Cucumber Sandwiches."

Activity on CafePress is often seen as a barometer on public opinion. In recent months the CafePress community has been actively making, buying and selling merchandise related to Tea Party hopefuls Christine O'Donnell and Jim DeMint, and the causes they champion, such as small government, lowering taxes, and illegal immigration. Currently there are over 700,000 products relating to the Tea Party in the marketplace.

Additional survey results are available upon request.

About the Survey
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of CafePress from October 14-18, 2010 among 2,464 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Kimberly Youngstrom.

About CafePress Cultural Barometer Report
CafePress is the world's biggest destination for self-expression through merchandise. With over 11 million shoppers visit CafePress to buy or create custom t-shirts, mugs, posters and other unique gifts that reflect their interests, passions, beliefs and affiliations it's a real-time reflection of the things people truly care about. Launched in 1999, CafePress has empowered individuals, Non Profits and businesses to create, buy and sell customized merchandise online using the company's unique print-on-demand and e-commerce services. In April of 2009 CafePress created the Cultural Barometer™ Report to share some of the more interesting, obscure, newsworthy, overwhelming, and just plain funny trends that come to our attention via the almighty T-shirt.

Learn more about CafePress by visiting:
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http://www.cafepress.ca
http://www.cafepress.co.uk
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