You know, it is REALLY easy to over-project meaning on to things like this.
I actually think its kind of silly for you guys to be reading into it so much.
"They are hiding it out in the open!" "They are evil and sell satanic shirts!" LOL. Take a step back guys
A lot of the time, "they" is "us"
As a longtime graphic designer, I can guarantee you that this design is
totally tongue-in-cheek and was probably an inside joke among the people who submitted it as a design.
Ending up on the shelves at Macy's was due to some package deal of shirt purchases where it was likely that the buyer pointed out thirty different shirt in a few minutes and said "Yeah we will buy this shirt collection, one shipment for each store, whatever..." (I have sat in on mass product order meetings with retail buyers many times, they basically just point at whatever the hell shiny object they want to stock the shelves with until the budget says to stop. The only items that receive more than three nanoseconds of thought are generally over a few thousand bucks).
I mean seriously Look at the design! The fonts are all cartoony and it's just a mish-mash of symbols. Even the ad itself is totally tongue in cheek... "hold your destiny in your own hands." LOL
I would totally wear that shirt - it would be priceless to see how many people I could giggle at when they took it too seriously. If I knew the designer myself, I would forward him this thread and I assure you he would spit his morning coffee out his nose from laughter.
I am about as far off the deep end as a person can get into conspiracy realities, but every once in a while I see some of us over-reacting to things that are completely innocuous and/or even contributed by our colleagues.
