Cards Against Humanity Against Trump
The company behind the offensively funny parlour game ‘Cards Against Humanity’ has taken aim at President Trump with its latest PR campaign. The company, that’s known as much for it’s outrageous PR campaigns as it’s profanity ridden game, said in a statement on its website, ‘it’s 2017, and the government is being run by a toilet. We have no choice: Cards Against Humanity is going to save America. There’s no time for questions – now is the time to act. You give us $15, and we’ll send six America-saving surprises to your doorstep. It will be fun, it will be weird, and if you voted for Trump, you might want to sit this one out.’
The campaign began with a video appearing to equate Mr Trump’s election win with the end of the universe. It then proceeded to criticise and mock the President for his ‘lies, injustice and racism’.
The first of the six surprises tied in with the company’s plan to stop Donald Trump building a wall along the US-Mexico border. The company said it had bought a piece of vacant land on the boundary and employed a law firm specialising in fighting compulsory land acquisition to make it difficult for Trump to build his wall. The ‘surprise’ sent in the post included an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of the card game’s promise to fight the wall and some new playing cards.
Five more surprises are being distributed throughout December tackling the issues of false news stories and the scourge of homework, amongst others. Needless to say, the $15 ‘surprises’ sold out almost immediately and the stunt has bagged the brand plenty of coverage.
They’ve got previous
It’s not the first time the party game company has attracted attention for its daring promotional campaigns. Since the game was launched in 2011, it’s gained a reputation for pulling incredibly on-point PR stunts, including:
2013: Selling their card game for $5 more than usual as a Black Friday promotion/protest. Sales went up.
2014: Selling a box of literal bull poo for $6. Unbelievably, 30,000 people bought it and went on to re-sell it on eBay for up to five times the original price. The stunt was a comment on the fact that people are essentially mindless zombies who can be talked into buying just about anything.
2015: Selling absolutely nothing for $5. The team made $71,000 on Black Friday 2015. For the entire day, people couldn’t buy anything from their online store; the only thing they could do was put in their credit card information, click a button and lose $5. Somehow, the stunt was a hit, with the company raising $71,145 from 11,248 buyers.
2016: In one of its more nihilistic stunts, the brand raised $100,573 on Black Friday last year and spent the money digging a huge pointless hole in rural Illinois. They livestreamed the whole thing and carried on digging until the money ran out. Then they filled the hole back in. All for no reason.
Playing the crazy marketing card
Cards Against Humanity co-creator Max Temkin told Vox in an interview that the team behind the game is happiest with their comedy when it’s rooted in something real, which is why their latest PR stunt has taken off. This year’s is their most risqué yet. Most brands don’t want to get involved in political conversations, let alone take on the President of the United States, yet the self-owned company have put themselves in the centre of a highly publicised political conversation for many months to come.
