The makers of humourous card game Cards Against Humanity sold $180,000-worth of actual poo in protest of Black Friday, donating all proceeds to charity

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Some might say spending money on crap is what Black Friday is all about – but few would expect 30,000 people to literally do that.

That’s what happened this year though where, in a (somewhat dirty) protest against consumerism, Cards Against Humanity managed to sell 30,000 boxes of actual bull’s poop for just $6 a time to willing customers.

David Zumini (@davidzumini) When @CAH says they’re going to send you bullshit, they’re going to send you bullshit! #noregrets pic.twitter.com/kNptlisgFP

For those of you unfamiliar with Cards Against Humanity, it’s a cult card game manufacturer which has built an ardent following based on allowing people to be as taboo or as politically incorrect as they like in order to win the game. The concept is simple: choose the funniest/most offensive answer to a question or to fill a blank space and you win.

According to an interview the game’s creators gave to Time this week, they really hate Black Friday. Last year, they sold the game for $5 above the average price.

This year, on 28 November the company removed their game from sale and replaced it with the following statement:

To help you experience the ultimate savings on Cards Against Humanity this Black Friday, we’ve removed the game from our store, making it impossible to purchase. Instead, we’re offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy some new bullshit.

When the “offer” was announced, some fans thought they might get something else – like an extra card of some sort – but at no point were customers led to believe they were buying anything other than exactly what it said on the box. In fact, the game’s co-founder Max Temkin, as well as the game’s official Twitter account, went out of his way to inform them on Twitter that they would be receiving a box of, er, poop.

Max Temkin (@MaxTemkin) nope pic.twitter.com/u6o67beZjP

Max Temkin (@MaxTemkin) If you buy the poop expecting it to be something else that’s not poop, you’re actually buying a valuable life lesson for $6.

Whether all 30,000 customers actually thought they would just be getting bovine excretions is uncertain. One customer even made an “unboxing” video on YouTube:

But that’s just what they got. With the boxes costing $5.80 to make, Cards Against Humanity made $6,000 in total from the prank and donated all proceeds to Heifer International.

CardsAgainstHumanity (@CAH) @AmericasBaby1 Yep! But they cost $5.80 to make and mail. We just did because we thought it was funny, not for money.

Moral of the story: If it looks like bullshit, it probably is.