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Three Wolf Moon

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File:Three-Wolf-Moon web.jpg
Three Wolf Moon picture sublimated on to aluminum pet ID tag.

Three Wolf Moon is a T-shirt, featuring three wolves howling at the moon. The numerous facetious reviews for this on Amazon.com have become an Internet phenomenon.[1] The T-shirt was designed by artist Antonia Neshev.[2]

Origin and history

Brian Govern, author of the ur-review
Antonia Neshev, creator of the Three Wolf Moon design
Michael McGloin, art director of The Mountain Corporation

The Three Wolf Moon T-shirt gained popularity after attracting facetious reviews on Amazon.com attributing great power to it such as being irresistible to women, striking fear into other males and magical healing abilities.[3] Brian Govern, a student at Rutgers University, was searching for a school book on Amazon and was led to The Three Wolf Moon T-shirt by an Amazon recommendation which had been targeted at students purchasing college semester books.[4] He decided to write a review of the shirt on a whim as he did not actually own the shirt. His faux-serious review as "Bee-Dot-Govern" in November 2008 concluded:[5]

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.

Since this original review was posted, more than 1600 similar reviews have been posted.[2] Some reviewers have uploaded images showing celebrities such as Barack Obama or Steve Jobs wearing the shirt, to illustrate its magical powers.[6]

The shirt attracted further interest when it became viral on networking sites such as Digg and Facebook and was then lauded in conventional media as an Internet phenomenon.[4] German scholar, Melvin Haack, considers it to be a notable example of a redneck joke.[7]

Sales

The T-shirt is manufactured by The Mountain Corporation, a wholesale clothing company in Keene, New Hampshire, United States.[8] Their art director, Michael McGloin, said that they were making many more shirts in response to the great demand which had made it the top selling item in Amazon's clothing store.[3] Due to the success of the shirt on growing The Mountain Corporation's business, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development named the Three Wolf Moon shirt the official New Hampshire T-shirt of economic development.[9]

On August 24, 2009 the Three Wolf Moon shirt was introduced to the Amazon UK store and promoted on the front page, with the words, "With over 1,300 reviews, the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt is hot news in the US. Harness the power of the wolves - get yours now."[10]

Parodies and attributions

A similar shirt featuring Keyboard Cats instead of wolves has been produced at the T-shirt design site Threadless. In July 2009, this was the most highly-rated design there.[11] The video game apparel company J!NX has a version of the shirt featuring Worgen from the popular MMO World of Warcraft. In October 2009 T-shirt website 80stees.com released the "Three Teen Wolf Moon" T-shirt, featuring images from the 1985 film Teen Wolf.[12]

Jib Jab referenced the three wolves in its annual musical summary of the year.

Notable wearers

References

  1. ^ Know Your Meme Three Wolf Moon overview. Collected 23 Mar 2010.
  2. ^ a b Peter Applebome (May 24, 2009). "Think a T-Shirt Can't Change Your Life? A Skeptic Thinks Again". The New York Times.
  3. ^ a b Daniel Emery (21 May 2009), Joke review boosts T-shirt sales, BBC
  4. ^ a b Rajiv Sabherwal, Irma Becerra-Fernandez (2009), Business Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons
  5. ^ http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XKMDXZHQ26YX Amazon.com: B. Govern "Bee-Dot-Go...'s review of Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt
  6. ^ Joseph Jaffe (2010), Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones, John Wiley and Sons
  7. ^ Melvin Haack (20.08.2009), Redneck Jokes as a Subcultural Phenomenon (PDF), Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 23 (help)
  8. ^ Steve Johnson (May 20, 2009), Three Wolf Moon T-shirt inspires wave of snarkiness on Amazon product reviews -- and sales skyrocket, Chicago Tribune
  9. ^ "State Hopes To Harness Power Of 'Three Wolf' Shirts". WMUR. 2010-01-27. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
  10. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002DGFYFA
  11. ^ Tom Phillips (23 July 2009), Three Keyboard Cat Moon: and the internet did rejoice, Metro
  12. ^ http://www.80stees.com/products/Full-Moon-Teen-Wolf-T-shirt.asp
  13. ^ Wil Wheaton (28th Feb 2010), Wil wearing the shirt during the 2010 Olympics {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Wil Wheaton (28th Feb 2010), Photo of Wil wearing the shirt {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Cher Tippetts (28th Jul 2009), Michael Jackson's Ex-Wife Visits His Dermatologist's Office, Entertainment Wise {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Desiree Malinao (11th Aug 2009), Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt at SES San Jose 2009 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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