The marketing efforts of the popular card game Cards Against Humanity have not been traditional, to say the least. The company behind it has done a variety of stunts in the past that can be considered both amazing and confusing, such as when it bought a small island that it named Hawaii 2.
For last year's Black Friday, Cards Against Humanity offered fans to purchase a box of poop for $6. The poop that was delivered to those that bought was actually real, but pasteurized, and it came with an emoji-like poop button. There was nothing else included in the package.
For this year's Black Friday offer, Cards Against Humanity replaced poop with absolutely nothing.
The company took down its online store, which meant that customers who were looking to purchase the card game over Black Friday were not be able to. The online store page was replaced with one that would allow customers to give Cards Against Humanity the amount of $5, and receive nothing in return.
The page then simply asked for a person's name, e-mail address and payment details, and had a check box that had the customer state that there is nothing expected in return for the $5 being given.
Cards Against Humanity had an FAQ section beneath the page, which explained to customers that it was not a joke and they were really being asked to give $5 for nothing.
"On Black Friday, everybody is selling something. We're the only company to offer the superior Black Friday experience of buying nothing," the company wrote, noting that there is nothing coming to the customers in exchange for the $5, as the shipping address of the customers were not even being asked.
"Sometimes buying nothing is better than buying Cards Against Humanity. This is one of those times," the company also said, for customers who wanted to buy the card game but were not able to due to the company's Black Friday offer.
According to the company, the greatest gift for Black Friday is buying nothing, and it offered that gift for the low price of $5. "How can you afford NOT to seize this incredible opportunity?" the company asked.
Cards Against Humanity fans actually seized that opportunity, sending the company a total of $71,145. The company noted that 11,248 people gave $5 and 1,199 people gave more than that by sending in the form multiple times, with one person even sending in a total of $100.
"There's been a lot of speculation about how we would spend the money from Black Friday, and we're happy to announce that this time, we kept it all. Here's what we bought," the company hilariously wrote in its Black Friday update.
The Cards Against Humanity team then listed off what they purchased with the money they got. While there were some donations made to charity, other things that the money went to include a Roomba, student debt loan repayments, a down payment for a used SUV, a residency fee and airfare to Finland's Arteles Creative Center, a Legolas' long bow, a luxury watch, a Disney World trip, a golden vibrating massager, a queen-sized bed, a trip to Portland and Seattle, a 50-inch LED TV, a day out for mini golf, LASIK eye surgery, custom armor, and a variety of electronic gadgets.
