Is your favorite candy Republican? Is your favorite brand of mac and cheese affiliated with the Democratic party?
Now you can find out by downloading the free new app, "BuyPartisan."
"BuyPartisan works like a nutritional label for your political values," explains the app's iTunes Store page. "Simply use your phone to scan a product's barcode, or just search by individual company or product, and you can quickly see the political contributions of each company's CEO, Board of Directors, political action committees and employees."
"BuyPartisan" complies data from three nonpartisan nonprofits with the purpose of recording money and lobbying in U.S. politics: the Sunlight Foundation, the Center for Reponsive Politics, and the National Instuite on Money In State Politics.
This app is useful for voters who like to ensure that companies are held responsible for the causes they claim to support. "BuyPartisan" puts all the information in one place without the hassle of fact-checking against misrepresented numbers.
So, does it work? According to Fast Company's John Brownlee, the app functions just fine without any crazy hiccups or crashes. During a trip to Whole Foods, Brownlee checked the political donations of several companies and found some surprising results.
"I started in the juice section, picking up a large bottle of Naked Juice," writes Brownlee. "*Budddle-leep.* 94.5% Republican. Huh. Who knew?"
One major downside to "BuyPartisan" noted by Brownlee was the lack of an alternative options by the app.
If your chocolate chip cookies don't agree with political affiliation, you have to keep scanning yourself until you find the company that is pro-you. Related items and suggested items are standard on most apps so this is a feature that merits serious consideration in updates to the app.
"BuyPartisan" has the potential to be a huge hit with supporters of both parties. A few more updates for functionality could push the app to the forefront as voters become more technologically savvy in the era of mobile devices.
