consumerism - The Art of the Prank

November 12, 2025

The Bush is Trying to Make a Comeback

Comes with dental floss in matching colors.

“Follicular Follies,” by Flora Gill, AirMail, November 1, 2025.

The Bush Is Back, Baby! But there’s a catch. Welcome to the wild world of “merkins”.

Before women leave the house for a night out, there’s a routine we all follow. We check that our makeup isn’t smudged. We add a dash of perfume to the nape of our necks. And … we carefully comb out the faux pubes on our underwear. No? Is that last bit not part of your evening checklist at present? Well, it might be, if Kim Kardashian gets her way.

Following her release of the viral “nipple bra” a few years ago, the reality-TV star turned business mogul has brought out yet another Internet-breaking item through her $4 billion intimates company, Skims. This time, it’s a “merkin.” Read the whole article here.

September 19, 2025September 19, 2025

Consumerism Posing as a Solution

An anti-road rage solution? Or another variation of angry birds? Promoting a concept that exploits road rage but probably adds to the problem.

“Car company creates hilarious tool to channel drivers’ anger — and avoid dangerous road rage incidents,” by Brooke Steinberg, New York Post, August 21, 2025.

A car company in China has a cartoonish approach to curing road rage.

XPeng has unveiled a quirky new feature designed to subdue angry drivers — though it may also prove to be a distraction.

Suppose you’ve ever thrown a digital banana peel at an opponent in Mario Kart. In that case, you might know the satisfaction that throwing something like a digital shoe or an angry face would illicit.

Read the whole article here.

November 29, 2016December 15, 2023

Cards Against Humanity Digs a Black Friday Hole

The team at Cards Against Humanity has a history of irreverent Black Friday stunts – we chatted with spokesman Max Temkin about the “Box of Bullshit” in 2014. 2016’s celebration involved a lot of money, a large hole, and that was pretty much it.

“Cards Against Humanity Threw $100,000 Into a Giant Hole Over Thanksgiving Weekend”
by Ed Mazza
The Huffington Post
November 28, 2016

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Cards Against Humanity offered its own Black Friday special: Send them money, and they”ll use it to dig a hole.

“The holidays are here, and everything in America is going really well,” the company wrote on its Holiday Hole website. “To celebrate Black Friday, Cards Against Humanity is digging a tremendous hole in the earth.”

The website featured a live camera of the hole being dug as a ticker listed the donations as they came in, telethon-style.

The company raised just over $100,000, which was enough to keep the digging operation going until Sunday morning “• and from the videos posted online, it looks like they dug themselves quite a hole:

The FAQ on the website offers the company”s trademark humor:

Why aren”t you giving all this money to charity?
Why aren”t YOU giving all this money to charity? It”s your money.

Is the hole bad for the environment?
No, this was just a bunch of empty land. Now there”s a hole there. That”s life.

How am I supposed to feel about this?
You”re supposed to think it”s funny. You might not get it for a while, but some time next year you”ll chuckle quietly to yourself and remember all this business about the hole.

Cards Against Humanity is known for going against the flow on Black Friday.

Last year, they sold nothing at all “• for $5 a pop “• and earned more than $70,000. The year before that, they sold poop.

November 3, 2013December 15, 2023

Company of Thieves

From Artists Denial and Ben Frost:

Company of Thieves

Canadian artist Denial and Australian born Ben Frost have joined forces in a bold exhibition of new work that explores the boundaries of appropriation, in confronting re-imaginings of our current dystopian society.

Inner State Gallery
October 18 – November 15
1410 Gratiot, Eastern Market
Detroit, Michigan
313-774-6505 / info@innerstategallery.com

Self-confessed “˜visual thieves”, both artists have had a long history of stealing and subverting the cultural icons that the advertising and consumerist world has thrust upon us, to create new and pertinent interpretations that are as confronting as they are humorous.

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Denial and Frost formed an instant friendship since their meeting in Canada in 2011 and have been creating engaging street and gallery work ever since. “˜Company of Thieves” sees their collaboration push further, with large and small-scale works that reference Pop Art, Graffiti and the corporate world they rebel against.