T-Shirt Hell, one of the funnier online apparel stores recently announced that they'd be going out of business due to poor sales, and to celebrate, were discounting all their merchandise, and bringing back nine of their classic tees. In the two week span after the announcement, the site sold just shy of 100,000 shirts in last chance deals.

I just got their newsletter for this week, and in it they thank their devoted consumer base for supporting them over the years, that the good news was that the discount was for another week, and a link to some "bad news".

What was the "bad news" you ask?

They never planned on closing in the first place.

It was one huge marketing stunt, and a brilliant one at that. The guy managed to skyrocket profit, stimulate his sector of the economy, and regain consumer interest in his product, all with a simple cut-and-paste newsletter, and a ten minute entry on his website. Genius.

Go buy a shirt.

The problem is that you can only do that once, and you risk pissing off potential customers.

True, but the payoff ain't bad. Twenty dollar tee shirt x 100,000.

Businesses do this, they just won't admit it like that.

I never even heard of them before now.  I'll probably buy a few.  Yeah it's a dirty stunt but who cares it's not like businesses have any integrity these days anyways.

It's no worse than treating your employees like shit, or evading taxes, or reducing the quality of your products to subpar standars.

McDonalds puts people on a level of discipline for putting more than one pickle on a cheeseburger. These guys "trick" you into buying a shirt you willingly decided to buy.

I know who I'd support monetarily.

Any big corporation treats their low-level employees like shit.