Trading in fear

Plush toys, T-shirts, costumes and other cynical ways to make money off the Ebola “brand”

The Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal, according to the World Health Organization, has killed more than 4.5 thousand people, but in the West it is still perceived as a modern horror story.

On October 20, netizens were outraged by a store selling plush toys in the shape of Ebola. On this occasion, TJournal decided to find out how else resourceful entrepreneurs make money from the “brand” of this terrible disease.

Plush Toys

On a site called Giant Microbes , anyone can buy an Ebola plush for $10 (or $30 for the larger version). There are also toys in the form of bifidobacteria, brain cells and even breast cancer cells.

Paintings

On eBay you can buy an oil painting of Ebola depicted in the style of legendary artist Andy Warhol. The canvas will cost almost a hundred dollars.

Candles for prayers

The creators of this $40 accessory turned out to be quite lazy: the only thing that distinguishes the one presented in the store from an ordinary candle in a jar is the inscription on the cardboard heart. The authors hope that their products will decorate any interior, and the prayers of their customers will help overcome the terrible virus.

Decorative embroidery

Ebola in cross stitch form for $20 that you can hang on your wall. The creators suggest decorating the interior with other viruses: from herpes to flu.

Cutting boards

There aren't many people who want to think about bacteria and viruses when cutting up a piece of meat. for them that costs $31. However, there is a handmade wooden board

Its surface depicts Ebola, Salmonella, swine flu, bird flu and meningitis.

T-shirts

The most popular category of Ebola-themed products is, of course, T-shirts. Most of them feature a simple, humorous inscription, but there are also more inventive options.

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Rear window stickers

An original way to announce that a family with children is traveling in the car is a five-dollar sticker with people and a dog in protective suits.

Halloween Costumes

As Halloween approaches, many Americans are wondering if they can make a costume based on the deadly epidemic or if it's too early for jokes. a big hit before the holiday Yellow protective suits with masks became .

Songs

The humorous musical track Ebola In Town, which can rightfully be considered the official anthem of the epidemic, advises in its lyrics not to eat anything, not to kiss or touch friends. It was recorded with the participation of hip-hop group D-12 and flavored with a huge amount of auto-tune.

TV series

Television did not miss its opportunity to play on the popular trend. On October 17 , it became known that a mini-series based on an article by journalist Richard Preston for The New Yorker had been put into production. He will tell the story of the terrible virus from the first mentions to the current crisis. The show will be produced by director Ridley Scott, who needs no introduction.

Books

In early October, The Washington Post sounded the alarm: a flood of books about Ebola written by amateurs with no medical training were appearing on the Amazon charts. In three months, the store registered more than 84 new self-published works of this nature.

For example, one of them claims that over the next 24 months Ebola will kill 4.1 billion people, and the rest will have to struggle to survive in the new world.

Smartphone applications

In recent months, a huge number of Ebola apps of dubious benefit have appeared on the App Store and Google Play. Many of them simply constantly update statistics on the number of victims of the virus, whipping up fear, but the paid Ebola Tracker program goes further: it calculates at what distance from the user the nearest case of infection occurred, regularly creating unnecessary reasons for paranoia.

There are also games about Ebola in the App Store.

At least they haven't made a Lego set about Ebola yet,
Vadim Elistratov,
TJournal

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