The company behind popular card game Cards Against Humanity announced today on its blog that it was going out of business following a disastrous Superbowl ad… but things weren’t what they seemed.
Their advert, a thirty second ad featuring a potato in front of a white background with the word ‘advertisement’ scribbled on it, was hilariously dull and failed to mention what the hell it was actually advertising.
But this wasn’t a massive fuck up because the PR whiz kids behind the popular game never actually forked over the extortionate fee needed to buy a Superbowl ad, they just made their own fake news story saying they did.
Tom Bullock This led to them getting all the publicity they would have got had they bought the Superbowl advert without any of the risk, The Next Web reports.
On their blog the people behind Cards Against Humanity subtly mocked the recent trend of Superbowl adverts trying to be ‘unique’ and failing spectacularly.
Jareed Via Creative CommonsThey wrote:
Going into this project, our research showed that most Super Bowl commercials are very exciting to watch. They feature lots of quick camera cuts and cool celebrity spokespeople like Jessica Simpson.
Our strategy was to zig where everyone else zagged. We stand by this direction, but the market wasn’t ready for an ad with the courage to stand still in a world that moves.
Flickr Cards Against Humanity are known for their creative PR stunts having once sold literal boxes of nothing and bullshit on Black Friday. They also offered Obama a job as their CEO when he finished his term in the Oval Office.
Who’d of thought that fake news could get you so far!
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.