In May 1927,
Jean-Paul Sartre, who was known as one of the fiercest pranksters at the
École Normale Superieure organized with his comrades Nizan, Larroutis, Baillou and Herland, a media prank following
Charles Lindbergh's successful New York-Paris flight. Sartre & Co. called newspapers telling them that Lindbergh would be awarded an honorary degree by the
École. Many newspapers including
Le Petit Parisien announced the event on May 25 and thousands showed up, unaware that they were witnessing a stunt with a
look-alike. A scandal followed resulting in the resignation of the
École director
Gustave Lanson. One well-known 1967 prank, orchestrated by
Abbie Hoffman and
Allen Ginsberg and chronicled in
Norman Mailer's
Armies of the Night, involved a mock gathering protesting the
Vietnam War (that many media took as a serious but misguided effort) intended to
levitate the
Pentagon.
Joey Skaggs is one of the most prolific creators of media pranks in the United States, often using actors to stage outlandish public events that are then covered by news media as real stories. Among his many pranks, he convinced
United Press International to report that cockroach hormones had been identified as a cure for arthritis, acne, and radiation poisoning, and tricked
WABC-TV in New York City to create a news segment (which was nominated for and won an
Emmy Award despite being untrue) about a supposed "
cathouse for dogs". The band
Negativland is (according to Time Magazine) "better known for media pranks than records". The band, as an excuse for cancelling an upcoming tour, issued a press release claiming that a teenager who had committed a multiple
axe murder did so after arguing with his parents over the meaning of its song, "
Christianity Is Stupid". The story was picked up and reprinted as true by mass media, and the band wrote later songs about having perpetrated the hoax. In 2003 the band issued a series of press releases accusing
Seattle, Washington, radio station
KJR-FM of playing 1980s music despite claiming it only played "the best of the 60s and 70s" then, after the radio station changed its format, issued more press releases announcing that it had all been a prank. Beginning in 1999 with the fake campaign-oriented website gwbush.com, the
Yes Men have impersonated famous celebrities, politicians, and business officials at appearances, interviews, websites, and other media to make political points. In December 2009, an Argentina news station fell victim to a media prank. Acting on a Facebook link, an investigative reporter believed that the latest trend in underage drinking was tied to a new cocktail mix called Grog XD. Unbeknown to the reporter, the recipe was from the video game
The Secret of Monkey Island.
Portofess Joey Skaggs, posing as the fictional Father Anthony Joseph, pedaled a confessional booth mounted on a tricycle to the 1992
Democratic National Convention in New York City. Dubbed "Portofess", the portable confessional offering "religion on the move for people on the go", fooled dozens of journalists before the hoax was exposed.
Voltswagen joke In March 2021, several major media outlets reported that
Volkswagen was rebranding itself as "Voltswagen" to focus on the development of electric vehicles. Despite the company's release of an official statement declaring the name change was an early
April Fools' joke,
CNN,
NBC News, and
The Washington Post fell for the gag.
Ligma–Johnson hoax On October 28, 2022, a pair of amateur
improvisational actors
pranked multiple major media outlets with a spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax that was revealed the same day. As reporters congregated outside Twitter headquarters on the day
Elon Musk took control of the company, the instigator, playing the fictional role of
Rahul Ligma, "thought it would be really funny" if he and a friend "walked out with a [cardboard] box and they fell for it." After interviewing the two pranksters, neither of whom had ever worked for
Twitter, journalists at
CNBC,
Bloomberg,
ABC News, and other networks reported that mass layoffs were underway. On October 31, 2022, CNBC's Deidre Bosa apologized and told
The Daily Beast, "They got me" and "I didn't do enough to confirm who they were".
The India Times called the hoax "perfectly-timed" and "one of the greatest pranks on the internet". Blake Shuster wrote in
USA Today that the journalists involved were "duped by real life trolls" and "all it would’ve taken was 30 seconds to stop and actually do their jobs to avoid the whole news-cycle". One of the actors explained that the stunt was spontaneous, and that "I was hoping at least one guy there would get it and they would turn off the cameras". as did
VOI of Indonesia and
The Hill of the U.S.
EcoWarrior Barbie hoax In August 2023, actor and environment activist
Darryl Hannah, in concert with the Yes Men and the
Barbie Liberation Organization, produced a press release and a promotional video purportedly by
Mattel, promising that the company's
Barbie dolls would manufactured without plastic products by 2030.
Looper said one of the fake commercials released to the press, featuring the hoax doll's "
Pussy Riot Accessory Pack" that contained Molotov cocktails and zip-tie handcuffs, "should have raised editorial eyebrows". == Deep fakes and AI-driven stunts ==