In the run-up to the holiday season, the makers of popular (if controversial) party game Cards Against Humanity offered a special promotion: eight small, mystery presents delivered over the month of December.
The company has a history of offering unexpected items for sale: in 2014, to celebrate Black Friday, it gave customers the chance to purchase a literal box of bullshit. So the 150,000 fans who paid up for the mystery gifts genuinely didn’t know what to expect, except for the fact that they were branded as “eight sensible gifts for Hanukah”.
The first three days, they got socks.
After that, the gifts became less tangible. The fourth day, members’ money was invested in the “Cards Against Humanity US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Fund”; on the fifth day, they donated the cash to NPR’s Chicago station, making all 150,000 NPR members for the year.
On Thursday, Cards Against Humanity gave all of its factory workers in China a week’s paid holiday.
In a letter to members, it wrote: “While our factory provides excellent wages and working conditions, Chinese working conditions are generally more strict. This year, we used the money from one day of our holiday promotion to give our workers something very uncommon in China: a paid vacation.
“The printer didn’t have any formal procedures for paid vacations, so we bought 100% of the factory’s capacity and paid them to produce nothing for a week, giving the people who make Cards Against Humanity an unexpected chance to visit family or do whatever they pleased.”
Those who paid for the gift received an envelope with photos and letters from the staff of the factory, detailing what they did on their vacations. One worker, Jiang Xiuhua, wrote: “During my work holiday, my husband and I went to visit my son at his military unit (he has already been a soldier for two years). I brought up Humanity Cards to my son, he thought they sounded pretty interesting. He said if these games were sold in China, he would be the first to buy them!”
It’s the second time in a month the company has surprised its workers with the benefits of a sale. This year, on Black Friday, it ran a special item in its store: “Give Cards Against Humanity $5”. It was very explicit that nothing would be received in exchange for the $5 – not even a box of bullshit.
It still received $71,145 (£47,718) from the sale, which it divided evenly between its US employees, and gave to them no-strings attached. The only condition was that they had to detail what they spent the money on. Maria, for instance, spent $732 on three bottles of scotch whisky, $800 on a TV, saved $1500 and donated $1153 to the pet charity PAWS. Tom spent $1500 on a custom suit of armour, $589 on a sword, and $125 on swordplay lessons, before donating $1971 to the International Wolf Center in Minnesota. Karlee donated $1027 to Planned Parenthood, and spent $3410 on lubricant, cleaning spray and a 24-karat gold vibrator.