Thursday, September 27, 2007

The best t-shirt I ever bought online


Undoubtedly the best t-shirt I bought online was one from the merchandising line of the then earth/industry shattering GTA III. The game involved you driving around and committing horrible crimes. It was genius. One of the many subtle in-game artifacts was a user controlled radio. Once you entered a car, you were able to change to the various radio stations.

One of the on-air ads was for petsovernight.com. It was a satirical take on the pervasive Web 1.0 business trend, where Joe Six-Pack could map out a business plan on a napkin and get millions of dollars in venture capital to start up ridiculous, or at best, poorly planned online products and services.
Petsovernight.com promised a wide variety of animals available for sale and delivered to your home the next day. Some of the animals highlighted were: fish, rhinos, vermin, stomach parasites, pekingese fighting bitches, sharks, and mackerel.

Wearing this shirt back in 1998 when the game debuted was cool because:
1) people thought it was real
or
2) they recognized it from the game

Wearing this shirt now is cool because:
1) people think it's real
and
2) it's a reminder of what NOT to do

And yes, Rockstar Games is still in business, and are still producing morally reprehensible games that are pleasing fans across the globe.

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