Computerworld.com

EBay Inc.’s marketing geniuses dreamed up some blobby little cartoon characters to promote the site and the supposed endorphin rush you get when you win an eBay auction — “win-dorphin,” get it?

The original press release of July 2007 said, “We’ve all experienced that feeling you can only get on eBay — you know, the excited rush you get when you win that item you really wanted at a great price? … Well, we’ve had a scientific breakthrough! According to our official scientists — after a lot of arduous, painstaking research — it can be linked to a phenomenon called ‘Windorphins.’”

EBay set up a Web site where you could create your own Windorphins and spent millions on billboards, magazine ads and TV spots promoting them.

One billboard ad proclaimed, “Windorphins are like a ticker tape parade for your soul.”

A more accurate description came from the blogger who called them “happy, animated hemorrhoids.”

EBay quietly dropped the campaign a few months later in favor of the slogan “Shop victoriously.”

Ugh. As for the Windorphins: Now they’re just plain orphans.

Here’s a stupid Windorphines Walrus Test video: