I’ve just seen a news release from MSCHF Product Studio plugging their new Illegal Chips. The more I read about the company, the more I believe it and its products are totally superfluous to the needs (and reasonable desires) of humankind. While not really illegal, their Chips definitely sound disgusting…
Disgusting.
According to Dun and Bradstreet business profiles, “Mschf Product Studio Inc. is located in Brooklyn, NY, United States and is part of the Computer Systems Design and Related Services Industry. MSCHF Product Studio Inc. has 13 total employees across all of its locations and generates $829,579 in sales (USD).”
As you might have guessed, already, the name is pronounced ‘mischief’. But it is more than mischief they’re up to. MSCHF’s products range from an iOS app featuring games like ‘Satan Shoes’ and ‘Death of the Influencer’, to a Squeeky Chicken Drug Pipe, to Nike Air Max sneakers with the air spaces filled with holy water from the River Jordan. (Nike sued them.) If they had stayed away from food novelties, I’d have taken pleasure in ignoring them. But their recent launch of Illegal Chips places them squarely in my wheelhouse.
Why illegal?
All three of the MSCHF potato chip flavours honour foods that are banned in the U.S. Horse Meat may be the most innocuous of them. There’s also Poison Puffer Fish and Sardinian Maggot Cheese. You can Google the latter two yourself if you really want more information.
With the exception of the Puffer Fish flavour, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to taste them. The Puffer Fish is Japanese Fugu, of course; the fish so poisonous that even in Japan it’s illegal to prepare or serve it without a license, backed up by years of training. I can understand why some folks would be curious to try it.
Josh Scherer, the Mythical Chef for the vblog Good Mythical Morning, summed up the fascination: “I’ve always wanted to know what puffer Fish (fugu) tastes like. But, on account of the fact that it can kill you, it’s mostly illegal in the US.”
MSCHF is only in it for the mischief
MSCHF’s products and ‘campaigns’ are admittedly designed to engage and outrage – ultimately to generate viral online attention for the Brand. In its simplest terms MSCHF and all its issue are just dark jokes on mainstream society. I’d love to know more about the monsterminds behind it; their motivations and ultimate goals. Based on what I’ve been able to learn in just a few minutes Googling, it seems these guys never outgrew schoolyard pranks.
Which brings me to a moral, ethical and spiritual impasse. By taking the time and energy and blog space to express my distaste for the MSCHF organization and the stuff they do, I’ve just added to the viral popularity of their disgusting Illegal Chips.
But I maintain that any organization that’s in it only for the ego-boo pop of viral fame – as fleeting as it is – is an empty and, in the end, futile endeavour.
And to think! The internet made it all possible…
~ Maggie J.