Thanks a lot, National Pork Board…

Posted On June 23, 2010

Yesterday I was cruising through my email in-box when I ran across a newsletter from one of my favorite retail websites: ThinkGeek. Here’s what I read…

The story caught my eye because a) it’s ridiculous, and b) the National Pork Board is in my city, Des Moines, Iowa.

Is this for real? I wondered. Surely not… That would just be silly, not to mention an embarrassment to a state that has struggled to convince the rest of America that we Iowans don’t all wear overalls and saddle up cows for transportation. (FYI, cows don’t appreciate being ridden.)

And then this morning, I read this in the Washington Post:

National Pork Board Targets ThinkGeek Web site: Blame the unicorns

C’mon, Pork Board, really? Really?!

I love ThinkGeek and have purchased many gifts from them that I can’t find anywhere else. Plus, their customer service is fantastic and their site is clever and fun to browse. In consider them my go-to site when I need a gift for one of the geeks in my life (in other words, one of my three little boys or one big boy).

National Pork Board, can we not just laugh at the product, which was in fact launched as a prank on April Fool’s Day? Did you not see the slogan was used for a can of unicorn meat? (Here’s a tip: Unicorns aren’t real.) Do we have to take ourselves that seriously? Is ThinkGeek really tarnishing your reputation with its little spoof?

Do Iowans not have enough stereotypes to overcome? We can now add “can’t take a joke” to the list.

And I’m pretty sure that with all the publicity this is getting, ThinkGeek is going to have the last laugh…while riding a unicorn all the way to the bank.