Stamp Stampede is a grassroots campaign mobilizing people across the United States to stamp messages on American currency in support of passing a constitutional amendment to Get Money Out of Politics.[1] Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, spearheaded the campaign.[2] They promote stamping through the distribution of rubber stamps, public stamping activities and national tours in the Stamp Mobile. The rubber stamps include different messages, such as: "Money is not free speech," "Not to be used for bribing politicians," "Corporations are not people; amend the Constitution," and "The system isn’t broken, it's fixed."[1][3]
 Stamp money out of politics | |
| Formation | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Website | Stamp Stampede |
Background
editThe Stamp Stampede campaign launched in October 2012. According to OpenSecrets, outside groups, candidates, political parties and Political Action Committees spent over US$6 billion in the 2012 elections, the highest expenditure of any US election.[3][4] The Stamp Stampede supports a proposed 28th amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and other Supreme Court cases. The proposed amendment declares that money is not free speech and corporations are not people.[3][5] The Stamp Stampede works in partnership with other groups including American Promise, Move to Amend, Public Citizen and People for the American Way.
Currency circulation
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On average, dollar bills stay in circulation for five years and pass through approximately 1,750 hands.[3] As Ben Cohen told Wired: "It's a really effective way of breaking through the clutter and interacting with people...I see it as a really cost-effective form of guerrilla marketing."[2] The campaign concluded that every dollar bill is seen by an average of 875 people, meaning that if 100 people stamped ten dollars a day for a year, the messages would reach over 300 million people.[1] Ben Cohen describes it as a "petition on steroids".[6] The campaign drew inspiration from Where's George? which has marked and tracked over 215 million dollars since 1998.[3]
Stamp Mobile
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The Stamp Mobile, or Amend-o-Matic, is a Rube Goldberg contraption mounted on the back of a converted box truck.[7] It was conceived by Ben and Alan Rorie. Users insert a dollar bill, which travels a long and circuitous path and is finally stamped, in bold red text, with one of four different messages and returned to the user. The first national tour was disrupted by Hurricane Sandy and mechanical problems, but the tour was scheduled to continue in 2013.[2][8]
In April 2016, after several years on the road, and an estimated 100,000 bill imprints, the Stamp Mobile made its final tour stop at the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) in Baltimore, Maryland. The day after their brief detention at a big-money protest in DC, Ben & Jerry were on hand to promote the campaign[9] and donate the Stamp Mobile to the museum collection.[10][11]
Legal implications
editAccording to the legal opinion posted on the Stamp Stampede website, the campaign is legal.[6] In an interview with Pioneer Magazine, Ben Cohen notes "It's a fairly commonly held view that putting marks on dollar bills is not legal, but that's not the case."[6] Stamp Stampede argues that the stamping of U.S. currency is protected as "expressive conduct" under the First Amendment as long as it does not promote a specific candidate or business.[1][3]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Stamp Stampede Website".
- ^ a b c NATHAN HURST (2012-10-15). "Ben Cohen's Crazy Money-Marking Contraption". Wired. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
- ^ a b c d e f KEN PICARD (2012-11-21). "Ben Cohen Has a Plan to Purge Money from Politics: Stamp It Out". Seven Days. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
- ^ "Stats". OpenSecrets.
- ^ "Bipartisan case for a Constitutional amendment on campaign finance".
- ^ a b c Pioneer Staff (2012-11-20). "The Ice Cream Man Drives a New Truck". Pioneer Magazine. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
- ^ Flickr user r_gesink (2014-01-10), Stamp Mobile for Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's, retrieved 2025-01-23
- ^ "Move to Amend Website".
- ^ The Baltimore Sun (2016-04-19). Stamping Big Money Out Of Politics One Dollar At A Time. Retrieved 2025-01-23 – via YouTube.
- ^ Meehan, Sarah (2016-04-19). "Ben & Jerry give political art contraption to AVAM". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
… bills came out with bright red lettering in all caps… After a demonstration Monday in Washington, D.C. led to a brief arrest, Cohen and Greenfield visited Baltimore on Tuesday to give the machine to the museum. Cohen estimates it has stamped more than 100,000 bills since it hit the road… about 60,000 volunteers across the country are stamping bills with their own rubber stamps — now for sale at the American Visionary Art Museum… Cohen, Greenfield and about 300 other protesters were arrested in Washington as part of Democracy Awakening, a gathering of hundreds of organizations to demand the removal of big money from politics. AVAM founder and director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger said the Stamp Mobile fits with the museum's mission of celebrating visionary thought.
- ^ "American Visionary Art Museum - Events: Stamp Mobile Dedication". web.archive.org. 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
Join Ben & Jerry, the world famous ice cream duo and co-founders of StampStampede.org… in welcoming the arrival of The Stamp Mobile to AVAM!… Visitors will get to see the artwork in action and stamp their own dollars, and even enjoy a bite of delicious Ben & Jerry's ice cream…