Race Guy: 4chan vs Hot Topic over 'Rage Guy' Meme

4chan Hijacks Meme to Derail Hot Topic Product Sales

Via reddit, we found that 4chan users hijacked an established meme to taint a product being sold by mass-market retailer Hot Topic. "Rage Guy" became "Race Guy".

Hot Topic began selling t-shirts depicting the near-ubiquitous Rage Guy (Know your meme: Rageguy). The character's popularity grew in 4chan's message boards, and spread across the web over the past few years. Hot Topic began selling a t-shirt depicting Rage Guy (the product was called "FU Rage Meme T-Shirt"), and 4chan members had a problem with this.

4chan users began a disinformation campaign, telling anyone and everyone that the character was called "Race Guy", and that it had overt racist overtones. They made some examples, which were unbelievably (and purposely) offensive. 

Hot Topic was left with no choice but to pull the Rage Guy t-shirts, because the company could not take the risk of the broader public thinking that Race Guy was real, and, by extension, that Hot Topic condoned racism or knowingly sold racist items.

On the Hot Topic Facebook page, a company rep wrote, "Race Guy is the newest iteration posted this afternoon, today (the character everyone is talking about).

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Rage Guy: 4chan Disinfo Campaign Derails Hot Topic

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

Who created Race Guy? We don't know. Who created Rage Guy? We don't know. We sold the shirt because it is pop culture and the series was funny. Why not let our customers express they're interest in meme's? So now what? Well, Hot Topic is the last company to support racism. Hell, we support diversity and wear it proudly. Now that the character represents racism because of these unknown creators - we will no longer be selling it. 

After tonight (11/17), it will be removed from our website. Next week, it will be removed from our stores."

Now Hot Topic is going, "FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU"...

It's a valuable lesson for mass-marketers to learn, though: if you try to hijack a meme whose adherents don't want it to be hijacked, you could find yourself the subject of attacks for you are not equipped to defend yourself. How could a clothing corporation possibly have managed the fallout from something like this?