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The Branding of Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, is licensing a line of merchandise like the T-shirt.

If you buy what someone stands for — intellectually, philosophically or culturally — does this mean you will also buy them literally? Their taste, their tchotchkes, their likeness?

A whole chunk of modern consumer culture is built on betting that the answer is yes, from celebrity product lines (Jessica Simpson, Paul Newman) to the growing businesses of YouTubers like Bethany Mota and Zoella, who have become beauty and fashion ambassadors.

But what happens when you add politics and morality to the mix? When you attach a value to the idea of your own values?

Such are the questions raised by the creation of Wiki License, the commercial arm of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, which is working with companies around the world to create a line of officially sanctioned “quality apparel and merchandise.” Not just T-shirts but possibly knits, leather jackets — even activewear. USB sticks! Briefcases! The sky’s the limit!

In a world where individuals are increasingly encouraged to consider themselves a brand, it is a logical progression, if not an entirely comfortable one.

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Alberto Korda with his photograph of Che Guevara, which Fidel Castro used as a symbol of his revolution in Cuba.Credit... Associated Press

Indeed, the self-licensing of Mr. Assange is arguably the ultimate example of the phenomenon identified by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland in their 1997 compilation of essays from The Baffler, “Commodify Your Dissent,” though they were talking about the business world’s co-option of the language of revolution, and Mr. Assange is using business to protect (and finance) his revolution, at least according to his representative.

Yet it still seems, at first anyway, a somehow inappropriate idea (or so an ad hoc poll of branding experts, fashion folks and friends would suggest). After all, commercial branding is an essentially corporate, establishment idea, and Mr. Assange and his ... well, brand, are the opposite.

There’s no question that the monetization of rebellion against the status quo has been going on for a long time; certainly since Fidel Castro helped popularize the concept by adopting a 1960 Alberto Korda photograph of Che Guevara as a symbol of his movement, which then migrated onto everything from T-shirts to bikinis. (The image was actually owned by Mr. Korda, who let it be widely used with only a few exceptions; a 2000 Smirnoff Vodka ad, for example, did not pass muster.) But traditionally such branding has not been orchestrated by the subject himself. Mr. Assange’s involvement takes the exercise to an entirely different level.

It began earlier this year when Mr. Assange, the silver-haired WikiLeaks founder and current refugee in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, was approached by a licensing agent in Iceland called Just Licensing with the suggestion that he take control of his brand image and monetize it.

Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson, a 50-year-old onetime member of the tech industry who first came into contact with Mr. Assange when his previous company, DataCell, provided a WikiLeaks server, had noted two developments.

First, a high level of awareness, as revealed in a 2011 survey by the market research firm Ipsos, which looked at perception of WikiLeaks in 24 countries and among 18,829 adults age 16 to 64. The survey showed approximately 80 percent name recognition and, in countries like India and Spain, a more than 80 percent positive association with said name. (Not surprisingly, its lowest rating came from the United States.) And second, the appearance of a host of nonofficial Wiki/Assange merchandise that has nothing to do with Mr. Assange.

Though there is only one official e-commerce site (wikileaks.spreadshirt.com), which sells T-shirts, polos and sweats, as well as a messenger bag for $75, many other purveyors offer Wiki tees, including one from Zazzle with the image of a tank running over the word “wiki.”

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Julian Assange.Credit...John Stillwell

Russell & Bromley, the British shoe label, is offering a WikiLeaks tan leather ballerina pump for 165 pounds (about $265), as well as a beige leather WikiLeaks cutout tote for £275. (It is unclear what relationship the name bears to the aesthetic, other than being attention grabbing.) And recently Dr. Martens created a black leather stomper of a lace-up boot, the Assange, which is $149.95.

Why let other people profit from your image, Mr. Sigurvinsson asked, and risk diluting or muddying the message? Instead, Wiki License created a 46-page book of “brand guidelines,” which includes rules about everything from color scheme to font and Mr. Assange’s approved portrait (an idealized line drawing of him gazing soulfully into what is presumably a better future with neatly trimmed beard and stylishly sweptback hair), not to mention a list of “non-accepted slogans,” like “We steal secrets,” “We attack corporations” and “Anti-secrecy.”

In addition, a chunk of royalties from sales of official WikiLeaks merchandise will go to fund the nonprofit, though Mr. Sigurvinsson declined to say precisely how much.

Last month, Mr. Sigurvinsson signed a deal with Bradford Licensing India (which also holds licensing rights to such brands as Penthouse and the N.B.A.), and he has sold the licensing rights in France and North Africa (to Paris Arabesques, which also owns rights to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley), and Central and Eastern Europe (Carmen Ariza). After a stint at the Las Vegas Licensing Expo in June, he is in talks with companies in the United States.

He is also exploring opportunities in the United Kingdom and Japan, and said he has written to both Russell & Bromley and Dr. Martens to ask them to stop selling the nonofficial accessories and sign up as a partner. (Dr. Martens did not respond to emails from this reporter, nor did Russell & Bromley.)

“There is enormous interest,” Mr. Sigurvinsson said via phone, noting that he believes WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange “can be as big as Coca-Cola.” Coke being, according to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2014, the sixth most valuable brand in the world.

And yet there is an inescapable difference between a carbonated drink and a controversial person, even if both stand for, as Martin Brochstein, senior vice president of the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association, said, “a promise of performance.” It depends, I suppose, on how you look at it. Or in it, to be accurate.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section E, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Branding of Julian Assange. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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