Most everyone is familiar with Cards Against Humanity, a card game company that has become just as well known for its raunchiness as it has it’s attention-seeking expansion packs and pranks. Through its’ most recent fundraising efforts and pranks, the company has, ironically, shown a side that seems to belie its name, with indications that they are trying to bring humanity back to an America torn apart by Donald Trump’s campaign, surprise ascension to the White House and devisive first months in office.
In their latest stunt, the company created the campaign, Cards Against Humanity Saves America. On their website, the company wrote Trump was, “a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a $20 billion wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing." For a $15 donation to the campaign, people would receive six “surprises” throughout December, including additional cards and a map of a plot of land that the company had purchased on the US-Mexico border. They promised to use some of the money to keep the land embroiled in an eminent domain battle, thus making it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump’s wall to get built, if it ever does.
This isn’t the only Cards Against Humanity promotion or fundraising effort that seems to promote humanitarian causes rather than work against them.
During the 2016 campaign the company sold both Trump and Hillary themed expansion packs vowing to donate all the proceeds to Hillary's campaign, regardless of whoever's pack sold more.
In 2012, they donated all the proceeds from their Holdiay Pack to the Wikimedia Foundation. For 2013 they donated to Donorschoose.org, and for 2014 they donated the proceeds to the Sunlight Foundation. While these organizations all have different goals and missions, they all work toward the betterment of humanity in one respect or another.
But some of their stunts have a less clear goal.
For example, for their Black Friday promotion in 2014, Cards Against Humanity pulled their product offline and instead sold literal bullshit, which was boxes of sterilized bull feces for $6 a box. They claimed they did this because the idea of Black Friday was bullshit.
In 2016, the creators began a live stream of the excavation of a hole and kept digging it as long as they received donations with no explanation as to what the hole was for or what the donations would be used for.
Though the company sells a product with a controversial name, it’s refreshing to see that, at the core, they support a better America and a better world. It’s rare to see a company stick it to the government and, occasionally, even their own customers, like this. I can't wait to see what they do next.
