The Marketing and Capitalization of Harambe's Death

"On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and was grabbed and dragged by Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla. Fearing for the boy's life, a zoo worker shot and killed Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe."

-WIKIPEDIA-

R.I.P. May 28, 2016 

On that fateful day in May, the world lost one of its greatest heroes. Born in captivity, Harambe was known as a gentle giant to his keepers. Following his death, the public social media outcry became so large that the Cinicinatti Zoo even shut down its Twitter account to escape the never ending onslaught of Haramabe memes.



Out of a terrible tragedy, an entirely new market was born. Capitalizing on the popularity of Harambe in pop culture many enterprising individuals began making Harambe merchandise of all kinds. A quick search of the word "Harambe" in Amazon produces products ranging from simple t-shirts and coffee mugs, to lapel pins and custom Nike Elite socks.

Harambe Depot t-shirt

This phenomenon has grown so large that websites, such as Harambe Depot, that solely sell Harambe related products have been created to satisfy the consumers who are hungry to get a piece of the "Sweet Prince". Even though Harambe was killed nearly half a year ago he still remains a staple subject of memes, Twitter, and Instagram posts.



Harambe's legacy and popularity had even grown large enough that at one point the official NFL merchandise shop had temporarily blocked the sale of custom jerseys sporting his name across the back. This was later determined to be an accident resulting from faulty software, but for a few days many Harambe fans took to Twitter to share their outrage with the NFL for preventing them from supporting their idol.



I do wonder how much longer the Harambe "craze" will last. But for now, the market for Harambe related products continues to remain strong. We may never get him back, but at least we can all own a piece of his legacy.

REST EASY SWEET PRINCE