Three Wolf Moon

Today I’d like to talk a little bit about irony.  Above is posted a picture that I think a few of you might be familiar with.  The three wolf moon t-shirt is every business’ dream:  A product that required no ad dollars whatsoever to change it from a cheap product that barely turned any profit into a massively successful product overnight.  This shirt currently stands as one of the top selling apparel items on Amazon.  It has spawned a major internet sensation that includes videos on collegehumor.com and Youtube, as well as a myriad of parody images.  All of this was not caused with a strong or catchy marketing slogan.  It doesn’t owe its success to a room full of savvy marketing experts who hit upon a golden formula.  The Three Wolf Moon shirt owes all its success to an ironic comment left on the Amazon.com review board.  User “Bee-Dot” wrote the now famous review, concluding:

”Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.”

The highly amusing review has led to an avalanche of further reviews from people looking to get in on the joke.  Currently the shirt has over 17,000 reviews, most of which reference the themes in Bee-Dot’s review. 

While Three Wolf Moon is certainly the most recent and successful instance of ironic internet meme turned marketing gold, it is hardly the only such instance of this happening.  In February of 2008 Australian eBay entrepreneurs George Patterson and Y&R Melbourne purchased a BMX bike off of eBay for 27.50 Australian Dollars.  They received the bike, and without making any changes to the product, reposted the item with the following description: 

“This is a max wicked sick BMX. It's a Reliance Boomerang and it's done heaps of maximum extreme stunts. I have mostly done stunts on this bike since forever. Once I did a boom gnarly stunt trick on it and a girl got pregnant just by watching my extremeness to the maxxxx. Some details about sickmax BMX: Comes with everything you see including: TOPS AS SUSPENSION REAR FORKS!! 2 x wheels 1 x seat I will even thrown my sick BMXing name for FREE - Wicked Styx. Has minor surface rust on handlebars and front forks (easily removed). More rust on rear forks (as shown in pics). Tyres hold air but are pretty old. Basically, it's an old BMX, but it's radness is still 100% in tact. Tricks I have done on this BMX: Endos - 234. Sick Wheelies - 687. Skids - 143,000. Bunny Hops - 2 (my brother dared me to do them, which I did because I'm Rad to the power of Sick). Flipouts - 28. Basically if you buy this bike you will instantly become a member to every club that was ever invented, worldwide, because you will be awesome. Pick up from Richmond in Melbourne. Throw your hands in the air like you just don't mind.”

Right away the pair received bids for higher amounts.  But the story gets more complicated.  The description was noticed by several blogs and internet forums and was lauded for its creativity.  By the time the final bids came in, the seller had released a statement letting buyers know that the whole thing was designed as a marketing experiment, yet the simple irony of the whole situation continued to drive the price up, until the bike sold for a staggering $134.50!  A 500% increase with absolutely no change in the product!  These examples and a whole lot more just go to show that the power of irony cannot be underestimated when marketing in the new age.  Knowledge of internet culture can prove to be a great benefit to anyone looking to sell products online.