Sarah Palin REALLY Likes Knockoffs

Well it seems like Sarah Palin really likes her knockoffs. Eric Wilson mentioned this in his article in the New York Times on October 22, 2009. Ms. Palin was seen wearing a knockoff Burberry scarf when she arrived at the governor's mansion for the first time in 2006. It seems that she must have liked that knockoff so much, that she wore it again during an ice festival.

Ms. Palin may be a soccer mom who seems accessible to many Americans, but this show of wearing knockoffs strikes me as being even worse than wearing clothes bought on a sky high budget by the RNC.

When you purchase knockoffs, you are encouraging things such as trademark dilution, blurring and tarnishment. These are some of the harms that are borne not only by the fashion designers, but also consumers.

When you purchase a knockoff, you are most likely buying an inferior product that is assembled in a country that is abusing its workers in order to create a cheaply made product for your consumption. This worker abuse can be anything from being severely underpaid (if at all) or use of child labor. Does Sarah Palin want to be known as a person who encourages the use of child labor all in the name of fashion?

Here is another example of her daughter wearing a Louis Vuitton knockoff.

Clearly, since Piper is only seven years old, she was under the influence of her dear old mom with this fashion wardrobe choice. By the way, you can tell that this handbag is a fake because the LV logo would never be cut off at the seam. Only the symbols are cut off at the seam with authentics while the LV logo itself is always centered.

Another point of concern is that with the sale of knockoffs such as this one, it is potentially funding criminal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution, child labor, and even terrorist groups. When you make a transaction in the black market, the money from that transaction could be floated into any of these activities even without your intention.

Is this what Sarah Palin wants to encourage? I should hope not! It is sad to think that Piper may be holding a bag that may have been sewn by a counterpart that is her age.

In other Sarah Palin knockoff news, it turns out that perhaps Ms. Palin is not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to fakes so we should all give her a break. She was pranked by the Mask Avengers by the name of Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel who are prominent Canadian comedians. Audette posed as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and spoke with an extreme French accent where he pretended to like hunting, alluded to Ms. Palin's comment about Russia being visible from Alaska, and also poked fun at Dick Cheney's hunting skills. Ms. Palin unfortunately, did not pick up on any of these verbal cues. It is clear that Ms. Palin should be not criticized too harshly for her knockoff fashion choices because it was clear from this phone call that she can not tell the difference between a fake and the real deal.