Meme Like Your Hair's On Fire
Meme Like Your Hair's On Fire
Hey Everyone,
Last week, The Boring Company released its latest meme-themed merchandise: Burnt Hair perfume.
The meme spread like wildfire across Twitter. TBC received orders for more than 20,000 bottles of Burnt Hair in two days.
Best of all, shoppers were given the option to pay in Dogecoin.
Let’s take a look at why meme merchandise may be the future of internet marketing, plus the latest on Elon’s attempt to forge peace between Russia and Ukraine.
Burnt Hair Chic
The DogeArmy has a new place to spend their dog money.
Last week, Elon dropped his latest meme item on The Boring Company's merch store: Burnt Hair scent.
Bottles of Burnt Hair sell for $100.
It's tagline is "The Essence of Repugnant Desire."
Burnt Hair was originally conceived as a men's fragrance, but is now advertised as an omnigender product.
Best of all, customers can pay in Dogecoin through BitPay.
All that's needed is a Doge-supporting wallet like MyDoge, Trust Wallet, or Coinbase wallet. Payment is quick and easy.
Elon joked that sales of Burnt Hair would help him raise money to complete his Twitter purchase.
More than 20,000 bottles of Burnt Hair were ordered within 48 hours of release, netting TBC $2 million in sales.
Burnt Hair is the latest in a line of viral "meme items" sold by Elon's companies. Other hits include include Tesla's Cyberwhistle, Tesla Tequila, Short shorts, and Burnt Hair's TBC precursor, the Not-A-Flamethrower.
Elon acknowledged the blend of fate and irony in his latest product, changing his Twitter bio to "Perfume Salesman" and tweeting, "With a name like mine, getting into the fragrance business was inevitable – why did I even fight it for so long!?"
Intentionally or not, the advertising campaign demonstrates how Twitter can be used as a marketing tool.
More than any other social media platform, Twitter allows for sales pitches like this to go viral.
Meme-based marketing may be the future of advertising, allowing companies to connect with consumers on a more authentic level.
Hopefully, Elon's financial backers for his acquisition took note of Burnt Hair's success and understand the true value of the platform in his hands.
Burnt Hair is also a reminder that during a crazy time, with life on earth feeling alternately fragile and absurd, there's still lots of value in a good gag.
The year is 2022: it's possible to buy a meme scent with meme money from a meme lord, and document the experience in memes.
Meme simulation confirmed.
Russia, Russia, Russia
While Elon was busy moving pallets of perfume, he still found time to fend off the latest attack from the establishment.
This time, the hit came from Ian Bremmer, a consultant, author, and poly sci professor.
In a newsletter to subscribers of his Eurasia Group, Bremmer claimed that Elon told him personally he'd spoken with Vladimir Putin about Ukraine.
Vice News picked up the story, causing a flurry of headlines on Tuesday morning that made it seem like Elon has been colluding with Russia to shift public sentiment against Ukraine through his peace poll tweet.
Elon denied the premise, tweeting that he has only spoken with Putin once, 18 months ago.
In another tweet, he added, "Nobody should trust Bremmer."
When challenged, Bremmer was unable to produce any proof of his supposed conversation, but stood by his reporting.
Internet sleuths proceeded to dig up a tweet by Bremmer calling Elon an "utter asshat," making it unlikely that Elon confided in him personally.
Bremmer isn't the only one taking shots at the king of Twitter since he started talking up the virtues of peace.
Over the last two weeks, The New York Times has put Elon in the crosshairs, running an obnoxious article about his social life, an op-ed rooting for his Twitter acquisition to fail, and a snarky video hit piece on The Boring Company.
Elon made light of the ongoing media attacks by posting an OJ meme.
On a more serious note, when asked if he'd consider speaking with Putin about a peace plan, Elon said he thought the countries were too far apart for meaningful negotiations.
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that, privately, some US officials don't believe either Ukraine or Russia can win the war outright.
If true, the assessment effectively puts the US in the driver's seat to either continue escalating by sending more aid, or push Ukraine toward the negotiating table.
So far, the US seems determined to escalate.
Friday evening, the US DoD announced another $725 million in aid, most of it in the form of weapons.
On Monday, NATO plans to start nuclear drills involving B-52 bombers flying over Belgium, Britain, and the North Sea.
Following Elon's lead, there is starting to be some pushback against the war.
Last week, Tulsi Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party because it "is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers."
She explained the decision on Joe Rogan, claiming the Military-Industrial Complex is driving the world toward conflict.
Former PayPal founder David Sacks and journalist Glenn Greenwald have also been vocal advocates for peace. Both have emphasized the media's strange fixation with escalating what increasingly looks like another regime-change proxy war with existential implications.
Over the weekend, Elon asked the Department of Defense to start footing the bill for Ukraine's Starlink Internet service. SpaceX is expected to have spent $120M by year's end.
On Saturday, after the DoD apparently refused, Elon reversed course and elected to keep donating the service.
When he caught flak for changing his mind, he tweeted, "I’m trying my hardest to de-escalate this situation and obviously failing."
At a precarious moment in history, with the world at its highest risk of nuclear war in 60 years, Elon is one of startlingly few people calling for peace. Most artists, politicians, Hollywood actors, and other leaders with big platforms are either silent on the issue or urging for more conflict.
Whatever the outcome of the war and the public debate around it, we are lucky to have him as an advocate for humanity. With any luck, more will follow his lead.
Dogey Treats: News Bites
Elon
The BBC released the first episode in a three part documentary called "The Elon Musk Show." It is available to watch on YouTube.
Elon posted memes about World Peace, mindfulness, Abe Lincoln, Das Boot, and Venn Diagrams. Sunday afternoon, he tweeted, "Deus X Machina," perhaps hinting at a resolution to the Twitter saga.
Global Financial System
The IMF issued a warning that financial stability risk had risen to levels of previous crises.
Wealthy clients from the Middle East and Asia have been pulling out money from Credit Suisse, according to Bloomberg. Credit Suisse is facing a tax probe from the DOJ over whether it helped clients hide assets from authorities. The US Federal Reserve quietly lent six billion dollars to the Swiss national bank amid speculation it was bailing out Credit Suisse.
British PM Liz Truss fired economic chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after he proposed a "mini-budget" that triggered financial turmoil in bond markets. Is the European Central Bank headed for Yield Curve Control?
A Chinese province developed an app to allow people to see if they are standing within 500 feet of a debtor as part of the Chinese social credit system. China ordered state-owned natural gas importers to stop sending gas to Europe.
Saudi Arabia again expressed interest in joining BRICS, said Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa.
US Economy
One day afters saying there was no cause for concern in US markets, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Yellen said she was concerned about liquidity in US Treasury bond markets. The Treasury asked banks if it should start buying back Treasury bonds to improve market liquidity. A WaPo op-ed expanded on the possibility of dysfunction in US Treasury markets.
JP Morgan Chase President Jamie Dimon criticized ESG and called on Joe Biden to loosen restrictions on US energy production.
Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic is being investigated for trading during blackout periods.
US CPI (inflation) was 8.2% for September, hotter than expected.
Ukraine-Russia
The founder of the pro-war "meme army" #NAFO was linked to Neo-Nazism.
After Sam Harris fretted over the consequences of ending the war, Elon tweeted, "Sam, there is a such a thing as meditating too much."
Russia added Meta to its list of "terrorist and extremist" organizations.
Elon was alarmed to find himself on a Ukrainian "kill list" after calling for peace. Pink Floyd's Roger Waters was also on the list.
Ukrainian President Zelensky gave a speech as a hologram.
Energy
After OPEC appeared to align with Russia and drew criticism from Western leaders, Vladimir Putin said Russia's intention was to ensure stable global energy markets.
Saudi Arabia issued a statement explaining its rationale for cutting oil production. It denied the cuts were politically motivated and said it was an economic decision. Biden reportedly asked Saudi Arabia to delay the cuts until after midterm elections.
Dogecoin
Dogecoin appeared on an episode of Rick and Morty.
A new play-to-earn metaverse game called "Lords of DogeTown" will be released later this month on The Sandbox.
Dogecoin will be nine years old in December. Its birthday inspired a new song, "Heart of Doge."
Crypto
BNY Mellon, America's oldest bank, now offers crypto custody.
Google will accept crypto, including Dogecoin, for cloud services. It plans to use Coinbase Commerce.
The SEC announced an investigation into Yuga Labs relating to Bored Ape Yacht Club over unregistered security offerings
The Federal Reserve's Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said crypto unlikely to replace fiat.
MasterCard will announce plans to allow banks and other institutions to offer crypto trading.
Meme Stonks
GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen tweeted, "I think my tweets are being suppressed," using the identical as a September Elon tweet. He also tweeted a comparison between low interest rates and easy sex. The tweets were Cohen's first since August.
Elon's legal team accused Twitter of ordering whistleblower Mudge Zatko to destroy evidence.
SpaceX
Elon tweeted a majestic photo of Starship stacked atop its booster.
Starlink service with roaming capability hit 100,000 customers. SpaceX is adding the ability to accept donations to provide Starlink to places in need of Internet.
Free Speech
At an EU hearing, a Pfizer executive claimed that Pfizer never tested efficacy of vaccines to stop transmission of Covid-19, causing the hashtag #PifzerGate to trend. A fact check rated PfizerGate as false, claiming that clinical trials were never meant to test for transmission. Boston University researchers developed a new version of Covid that killed 80% of infected mice.
A lawsuit agains the US government alleges a coordinated takedown of the Great Barrington Declaration.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo was censored by Twitter for posting his recommendation against mRna technology for males aged 18-39.
The mainstream media blacked out coverage of a human chain around British parliament demanding the release of Julian Assange. Stella Assange said Bitcoin is the real Occupy Wall Street.
JP Morgan Chase bank closed its relationship with Ye West and Twitter locked his account. After the news, Ye was spotted wearing a Satoshi Nakamoto hat, and was reported to be purchasing Parler. Ye appeared on the podcast Drink Champs to talk about his recent controversies, though the episode was taken down from YouTube. Elon posted a meme suggesting a collaboration between Twitter and Parler, along with the text "fun times ahead!!" before deleting the tweet.
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