New York T Shirt Store & NY Gifts

To emulate the viral marketing success of the three wolf moon t-shirt you must first know how it was achieved.

Approximately six months prior to the three wolf moon t-shirt becoming an in-demand 'must have' item, a person known as B. Govern "Bee-Dot-Governa" accessed the Amazon web site and penned a satirical comment about a T-shirt that had three Wolves howling at a moon emblazoned on it. He wrote what is now classified as, "The most helpful favorable review" on Amazon.

It reads, "This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women".

He added another paragraph and finished by listing the Pros as being: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women.

And Cons as being: 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.

Its immediate effect was positive with The Slightly Balding Superhero writing, "When I first saw this review I thought, "Why would anyone want to write three longish paragraphs about a wolf shirt??!?" But then I read it. I won't be melodramatic and say my life has been changed, but I think it totally has been. I bought the shirt".

In the six months following that posting over 8000 people have recorded that they had found his review to be helpful and to date there has been 798 reviews posted for the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt and all as outlandish as or more so than the last!

A posting classified as "The most helpful critical review" reads, "I think some of the benefits are exaggerated. So I got this wolf shirt because of, you know, the sweet wolves on it. However, having owned this shirt for three weeks now and having tried it out in a variety of situations, both formal and informal, I'm beginning to believe that some of the benefits ---- as described by other reviewers ---- are exaggerated. For example, not ONE supermodel has approached...

And other by Erik Carlgren "Stalker99", I purchased this fine looking shirt with the highest of hopes but found it's powers lacking. Looking good is one thing but now my cats are scared of me too. In fact, the only thing this shirt attracted was people with similar (if not as attractive) wolf shirts. I was able to scare up a softball team with my new friends but nobody comes to watch. All in all I'd say it improved my life tremendously".

And yet another by Feisty Girl, "The image is lovely but, c'mon, it's SO photo shopped. There's no way they could have gotten wolves to pose like that.

Such postings have sparked viral debate and the 4 most recent discussion topics in the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt forum are:

1. Waiting for the 3-moon version.
2. Three Wolf T-Shirt - Appropriate for Women?
3. Three Wolf Moon Origin
4. I need advice on the 3 wolf shirt

Originally written in fun, it should be noted that B. Govern doesn't even own the t-shirt. With his posting now in view of the literal world, it caught the eye of the editors at collegehumor.com and it wasn't long before its readers too added their own comic reviews.

"Now we've made an awesome t-shirt of three wolves howling at the moon the top ... We've made this sick wolf shirt the most popular wolf shirt in the world", wrote one reviewer, and...

"For when a big ridiculous stupid piece of crap just isn't big enough.

... a review to convince me to buy a shirt with three wolves howling at the moon" wrote another.

Certainly not all are favorable and many are far from it but it has proved not to be important in this case. What is important is that you have people talking, writing, posting, youtubing, social networking about it. It's become topical and almost cult like if comments and sales are anything to go by.

The Three Wolf Moon T-shirt isn't new. It's been on sale for a couple of years. But since the viral thread took off this month, sales have gone into the stratosphere. From as little as a few a day to more than 100 an hour! The T-shirts are produced by a small company called 'The Mountain' and they report that they may have to halt the production of its 500 other designs to focus solely on producing more Three Wolf Moon T shirts.

Can the viral marketing success of the Three Wolf Moon T shirts be duplicated? It seems like a simple question but will surely prove a challenge. If one intentionally adds other viral and social networks to the mix such as Twitter, Facebook, Socialmarker, Squidoo, Myspace, Youtube, Technorati, and Wetpaint to name a few, then a well thought out campaign may mimic a campaign that was never ever thought about, not for a single second!

The reach and subsequent sales success generated through viral marketing that Three Wolf Moon T shirts iconic beginning has managed to generate is more than just luck. It is proving to be a phenomenon!

"I feel this will be in the history books of marketing," said Michael McGloin, creative director of The Mountain. People will be trying to duplicate it. It's just out of control."

But it would be tough to duplicate, because real viral media is random enthusiasm willingly projected by many people. It can almost be cult like. And it doesn't have to make sense, be real or even liked but it does have to engaging and almost compulsive to become involved.

In one way shape or form you have to try and connect to and with people in your viral marketing. One of the easiest ways to do that is with a heck of a lot of money or simply with humor be it satirical, genuine or even implied.

In this instance, Three Wolf Moon T shirt, like it, love it or loath it, is the butt of the joke. Either way the T-shirt's manufacturer is howling all the way to the bank and is doing so with out spending a red cent on marketing their product.