‘Saving America’: Cards Against Humanity targets Trump wall in holiday ad
The company behind the game Cards Against Humanity is buying a plot of land on the US-Mexico border to sabotage construction of President Donald Trump’s controversial mooted border wall. The quirky holiday promotion sold out overnight.
“Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a $20 billion wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing," the company said in a statement on its website ‘Cards Against Humanity Saves America,’ set up for the promotion.
The Chicago-based company plans to fight Trump’s wall by hiring a team of eminent domain lawyers to delay its construction as long as possible.
"We've purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built," the statement says.
The stunt is part of a holiday marketing ploy in which users can purchase "six America-saving surprises” for $15, including an "illustrated map of the land, a certificate of our promise to fight the wall, some new cards and a few other surprises."
"It will be fun, it will be weird, and if you voted for Trump, you might want to sit this one out," the company said.
All 150,000 Cards Against Humanity Saves America spots were sold out just a few hours after the promotion launched on Tuesday, the company said. Those who managed to partake in the promotion will receive six "America-saving surprises" in the mail.
A video on the company’s site promotes the stunt as an effort to save the “American empire” that "seemed to be hanging from a thread” following the election of Donald Trump. Narrated by actor Peter Coyote, the video says Cards Against Humanity bought "acres" of vacant land on the US-Mexico border, while showing footage of wild horses galloping across the open desert. The video does not specify the location of the land.
Cards Against Humanity has a reputation for cheeky and politically-charged stunts. In March 2017, the company’s founder Max Temkin promised to personally purchase the browsing history of every member of Congress who voted for a bill to allow Internet Service Providers to sell customer data, and publish that information on the internet.
In 2016, CAH raised more than $100,000 to dig a “Holiday Hole” to nowhere. The year before, the company sold $50,000 worth of nothing on Black Friday, a popular shopping holiday in the US.
In October, a Congressional committee approved legislation that would provide a total of $15 billion for construction of the US-Mexico border wall. Newly released documents dated May 2017 and marked “Do Not Publish” revealed plans to build the wall through sensitive wildlife preserves and privately owned residential areas.
In September, the US Department of Homeland Security waived a set of environmental laws that would impede construction of the border wall near Calexico, California. A series of prototypes for the wall have been set up in San Diego.
