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It can take only a single message sent to a few million people to make you a millionaire. During the recent war in Iraq, the US Defense Intelligence Agency produced a pack of playing cards showing the faces of the 55 most- wanted Iraqi leaders for distribution among border guards and soldiers. In their spare time between battles, the soldiers were expected to play cards and memorize the faces of these bad guys.
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Now The New York Times reports that the cards are a hit not only among US forces but in the world at large. A man named Zac Brandenberg sent the e-mail mega-message out at 2: 30 a.m. one night in April.

"Get the 'Iraqi Most Wanted' Deck of Cards at $ 5.95 each," he declared. Five minutes later, he received his first order for four decks. "At that point, I knew we would be successful and I went to bed," said Brandenberg, whose company JDR Media was due to print the cards. Since then, more than 1.5 million packs of the Iraqi "sweetheart" cards have been sold by GreatUSAflags.com, a Los Angeles-Web site owned by JDR, and its partner, Lionstone International. According to The Times, Other companies have sold a total of more than one million decks, making the Iraqi cards one of the fastest-selling fad products in history - even surpassing hula hoops, which took the whole spring of 1957 to introduce them. In 1976, it took six months for an advertising man named Gary Dahl to sell 1.5 million "pet rocks," those pieces of stone that sat on one's desk and didn't need to be fed, walked or vaccinated like a dog or cat.

With new orders coming in 40 per minute and other companies jumping on the bandwagon, the problem was to actually print the cards. With nearly 200 permanent and temporary workers toiling around the click, Lionstone managed to satisfy 400,000 customers within a short time. But Brandenberg nevertheless has his antennae out for the next craze. Perhaps a coffee cup with the face of Bashir Assad or a T-shirt showing Ariel Sharon shaking hands with the president of Iran?

Copyright © June 13, 2003. The Jerusalem Post

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