In one of the more nihilistic brand stunts ever performed, the card game Cards Against Humanity raised $100,573 on Black Friday and spent the money digging a huge, pointless hole in rural Illinois.
They livestreamed the whole thing and dug until the money ran out. Then, this weekend, they filled the hole back in.
That's it. End of the article. You can go now.
But wait, why did they dig that hole? No real reason in particular, they claim, though they did mention it was in part because 2016 has been going so well.
It case you didn't get the sarcasm, 2016 in America has been rather upsetting for liberals, progressives or whatever you want to label the people who voted against Trump. CAH can be lumped into that group, considering they paid for their own anti-Trump billboards before the election alleging, in the geekist way possible, that Trump was not a team player.
One board read, "Donald Trump mains Hanzo and complains about team comp in chat." And if you don't know what that means, you can read our article about it. But as much good as that did, they might as well have thrown their money in a hole.
So they did—all the money everyone donated. Because, as they also put it, the hole was not only in the middle of nowhere in America. It was also "in our hearts." Asked why they didn't donate the money to charity, they asked, why didn't you donate it to charity? And when they wondered if they could dig far enough down to hit lava, they decided that would be great, because at least then they'd feel something.
The Holiday Hole may or may not be replacing CAH's great Holiday Bullshit promotions they've done the last few years. But given its timing, it's more likely just a Black Friday thing, following past Black Friday promotions like charging people $5 extra for buying on Black Friday and sending people actual holiday bullshit—as in, the shit of a bull in a box.
So, let's enjoy the hole stunt in the spirit it was meant—alternating between crushing depression and laughter at a universe gone mad.