"We spent several weeks cooking up and then selling fake celebrity stories to the British Tabloids, and we were shocked at how terrifyingly easy it was. [...] How to sell a fake story? Ingenuity and improvisation are the keys to succeeding at this and we would very much appreciate any feedback from both successful and unsuccessful attempts, so we can update these tips. But the very basic rules are:
Be funny.
Don’t be nasty.
Have a name.
Have a phone number."
"...At least in the Sun you open the Bizarre column and it says 'the hot celebrity gossip stories' you can take with a pinch of salt. But when those get run by the BBC for example that I think is much more problematic and more difficult to fix. [...] I think I’ve resigned myself to spending the rest of my life being introduced to people as “that bloke who sold a fake story about Amy Winehouse’s hair catching fire”, and I’m happy with this. Either that or I raise my game and do something more ridiculous. If anything, the tabloids have got worse: The Daily Star recently ran a story about the Chilean mine being turned into a theme park. They got this from a spoof news website called, er, the spoof. In a way they’ve made hoaxers redundant."
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Starsuckers' Movie Trailer. A documentary movie which tries to say things straightforward instead of selling apparently easy solutions. The whole point: how to stop allowing media corporations influence us and especially kids. The truth about how journalism actually works: copy, mix and paste. |
Questions and answers Are there any non-filthy news outlets? Why British people are so good in making bizarre projects? How easy or how hard is to create a prank? Picking the right story in the right time. |
The reaction from the media after the movie. The letter by Bob Geldof. The media as stage for their own subversion. Fox hunting in Britain: the prohibition and the re-establishment. The fox attack prank. |
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The fox attack: testing media hysteria (in the most silly and absurd way possible). The "Urban Fox Hunters": some useless friends, a badly trained dog and a fake fox. |
The morning after: thousand of visits, comments, complaints, and death threats. The story in major newspapers. The 2.000 £ reward from a society for protection of animals! A prank with very real consecuences. If you're going to upset people, you better have a very good reason. And claiming the prank and revealing the truth won't be an easy task. |
Martin Moore from Media Standards Trust explaining how their churn engine let you distinguish journalism from churnalism. The MaleBeautyDirect.com website and its hot product: the penazzle, that adds extra sparkle to your valentines day. The chastity garter, with a chip detecting if someone get sexually excited and send a text message to the lady's boyfriend or husband. |
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The Larry the cat story is spreading all over the national media. The Guardian publishes the reveal piece about the hoax, yet one day after the claim some journalists (BBC Radio Norfolk) didn't realize it was a fake and invite Chris to talk about the story. |