Even as someone who literally puts letters in the correct order for a living, I will be the first to admit that I’m no good at spelling out loud. I’ve never won a spelling bee in my life. I’m also not huge on public speaking, especially if it was in front of an unruly mob of Philadelphia Eagles fans. (Ignore the fact that many other fan bases think “unruly mob” and “Eagles fans” are redundant.) It’s why I’m here, writing this column, and not in the mayor’s office.

So I can empathize with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker when she tried to liven up a press conference a couple weeks ago in the midst of Eagles playoff fever, only to accidentally chant “E-L-G-S-E-S EAGLES.”

The internet isn’t big on empathy or forgetfulness. As you can imagine, Mayor Parker’s spelling gaffe has already reached meme status even outside of the Philly area. And as the “Birds” punched their ticket to the Super Bowl this past weekend, there was already “E-L-G-S-E-S” merchandise proudly worn in the area, with much more to come.

Opportunistic merch sellers got going pretty much right after the video was posted online. For example, there’s a can cooler from the website Pink Bike Ralph attributing the spelling error to the mayor.

Photo courtesy of Pink Bike Ralph

The website Cracked Bell is selling a shirt that says “Philaderpia Elgses,” “Fly Elgses Fly” and “Go Birbs.”

Photo courtesy of Cracked Bell

This harkens back to the recent spelling error on I-95, where drivers were directed to “Cenrtal Phila.” Does this city actually have a spelling problem? We have an Ivy League school! Are there misspellings in the Declaration of Independence? Has anyone looked recently?

A website called Philly Goat, which specializes in all sorts of Philly-centric gear has one in the retro Eagles font, but with the spelling error instead.

Photo courtesy of Philly Goat

Even Barstool Sports, pretty much the biggest name in sports culture at the moment, has an “ELGSES” shirt for sale on its site.

On-Demand for In Demand

Scroll down on the Philly Goat product page and you’ll notice something aside from the customer reviews or even more jabs at Mayor Parker: a disclaimer that the product is “made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it may take us up to 1-2 weeks to deliver it to you.”

The trend here isn’t so much an epidemic of spelling mistakes among our elected officials. It’s a look at the growing ubiquity of print-on-demand in apparel and promotional products.

This phenomenon of people taking a cultural moment and blowing it up and printing it onto products is huge in the greater promotional products industry. Call them memes, “micro-moments,” moment merch or whatever you want: Once something makes a splash in the zeitgeist, it’s open season for e-commerce sellers. It’s even better when you can corner a particular geographic market or fan base and appeal directly to them. It’s sort of a wink-wink, “if you know, you know” kind of signifier that T-shirt buyers love.

Even as Mayor Parker’s botched Eagles chant is starting to register nationally, the folks in Philly sure loved a chance to poke fun at the city’s highest-ranking employee while simultaneously cheering on their beloved Eagles through promotional apparel and accessories.

With the Birds set for another Super Bowl showdown against Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs – both no strangers to branded merchandise – there will surely be more “E-L-G-S-E-S” gear for sale, from both friends and foes of Philadelphia.

“If they win Sunday and especially if they win in New Orleans, every chintzy T-shirt stand at every beach point from Cape May to Seaside Heights will have some version of a shirt with that spelling and they will sell by the thousands,” Reddit user Purple_Thought888 wrote on a post on the r/Philadelphia subreddit. “We’ll wear them with pride as Giants and other teams’ fans look on with puzzled bemusement that only masks their seething rage. And should the Eagles and its fan base last for a thousand years, men will look back and say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

For promotional products distributors and decorators, this speaks to just how fast the market moves nowadays. Had the Eagles not made it to the Super Bowl, this would’ve been a blip that everyone forgot about. Instead, it gets more oxygen, and sellers have two weeks (and perhaps beyond) to post their designs and capitalize on sales.

Ordinarily, though, the collective attention span moves fast. Having print-on-demand capabilities allows you to capitalize on these little moments when you can, and print the exact amount you need, rather than bet the farm on a meme that never takes off and end up with a warehouse full of yesterday’s references printed on 50/50 cotton/poly blend.

It’s not a foolproof system, though. Look just a few hours west of Philly for a cautionary legal tale of what’s in good fun (and profitable) and what’s illegal. In November, a jury ruled that apparel company Vintage Brand violated Penn State University’s trademarks by selling unlicensed products with all sorts of Nittany Lions imagery – even if the defendant claimed they were “historic artistic images” from “vintage memorabilia,” and thus fair use.

Or look at a recent case involving a merchandise printer selling products hyping up San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who received multiple official warnings, including from the big man himself. That one was settled out of court in November.

There’s clearly a market for promo products that capture lightning in a bottle, but there is a fine line between a fun keepsake from a silly moment in history and trademark infringement. You, as the distributor, need to pay attention to that line like a wide receiver getting both toes down as they slide out of bounds.