You stink!

[pasithea]

In my disturbingly high number of visits to the mall lately, I've realized that some people are a lot smarter than me.

I'm referring to the amount of merchandise that guy moves with the stupid bunny that has captions like 'You stink' or 'You're stupid' or various other little hateful messages. It's in almost every store.

Even a novice could replicate his work in Illustrator in under an hour and yet somehow he's making a fortune. All it takes is an ugly childish icon and simple-minded ugly phrases to go along with it and boom! You've tapped into the true hateful nature of the american consumer and made a mint!

Of course at this point, it's 'been done' so you can't just use it. You might be able to get popular with ironic mocking of it, but I doubt that would go well either. The problem is, you need to think stupid enough. You need to pretend you're a pre-teen that thinks everyone else knows something you don't and having this shirt will make you seem like you're in the know! Your vanity and putting down others is all that matters in your tiny insignificant world but at least you can piss on someone else and be a hanger-on!

Probably the next big one is abstract or surrealist.

So here's my plan:

Make 20-minute illustrator pictures and throw stupid phrases on them that have nothing really to do with the picture like 'I AM FULL OF BEES' or 'MY SPLEEN IS INFLATABLE'. Slap it on cafe press, and wait for the stupid to start spending.

If nothing else, it's an interesting exercise. I'll try it.

Comments

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Too bad the line: "I AM FULL OF TINIER MEN" was used already.

I love this shirt idea!

[apoidea.livejournal.com]

I would buy something that said "I am full of bees"

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Hunh. Perfect timing with today's Wondermark.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

OMG I love that! I wonder if they'd put it on an ironic tee-shirt. :)

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

All it takes is an ugly childish icon and simple-minded ugly phrases

And a whole lot of capital to spend on marketing and manufacturing costs. ;-)

[openpalm.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to "put" quotation marks in the wrong place.

[shizouka.livejournal.com]

Not nessesarilly... This is where the genius of the idea comes into play.

All you have to do is get it ingraned as an internet meme. Create a big funny flash video, make something outrageous on Youtube, seed quite a few myspace and other webspaces with the gag...

Heck, do things in pencil art, borrow(steal) from Don Hertzfelt, and do it in that fasion...

The big cost is in time, any materials related to producing the silly videos...

But as soon as you come up with something absurdly silly and hopefully funny enough for the target age group to circulate, you'll have enough customers lining up with their parents credit cards.

Bleah. I should just finish an MBA.

[openpalm.livejournal.com]

I think you are still not thinking dumb enough. Try, "My liver is inflatable." (unless it's been done).

[zeeth_kyrah]

Image: Hunk of roast beef witha big serving fork stuck in it.
Text: "Fork it, I'm done."

Don't forget the ridiculous font choice. :)