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Gotcha! Top Publicity Stunts
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"Balloon boy" isn't the first hoax to float past the public before getting deflated. Here are some of the more memorable scams and publicity stunts that have grabbed headlines over the years.
LongmontTimes-Call/Richard M. Hackett
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What happened? Grey Owl, a First Nations man living in Ontario, became a major voice for nature conservation in the 1930s -- sort of a proto-David Suzuki. But it was all a lie: He had been born in England and his real name was Archibald Belaney.
Success or failure?
Success. The truth stayed hidden until Belaney's death. And despite the hoax, his environmentalist cause lived on. It even inspired Sir Richard Attenborough to direct the 1999 film Grey Owl. Not bad!
National Archives of Canada
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What happened? By the early 1970s, super-rich industrialist Howard Hughes had become a recluse. Some wondered if he was dead. Clifford Irving tried to pass off a manuscript as Hughes' "official autobiography," counting on him to stay hidden. Oops.
Success or failure?
Failure. Irving got caught and spent 17 months in prison. And Hughes had such a bizarre life, why make it up?
AP Photo
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What happened? Check out the body of this "alien" from a 1953 exhibit in Georgia. Its true identity is so shocking, so disturbing, you may not want to know. It's written here backwards: yeknom devahs a s'tI.
Success or failure?
Do you even have to ask?
AP Photo/John Bazemore
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What happened? American Jennifer Wilbanks ran away in 2005 in order to avoid being married. Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search. Three days later, she called her fiancé and claimed she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Later, she admitted having cold feet.
Success or failure?
Success. Wilbanks only got probation for her hoax and according to the BBC, sold her story to a New York firm for $500,000.
AP Photo/Ric Feld
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What happened? Several newspapers were mailed a letter that contained a CD with a photo of former Colin Powell and a small packet marked "anthrax." Of course, it was not anthrax.
Success or failure?
Failure. It didn't even faze a breaking news editor, who opened the package saying, "It's just sugar." Now a package marked "A viable business plan for newspapers," that would be a clever hoax.
AP Photo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Joshua Trujillo
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What happened? Police found mysterious glowing devices throughout Boston. Were they bombs? Nope. They were glorified Lite-Brites, showing a character from a hipster cartoon. Hey, it's an easy mistake.
Success or failure?
Failure. The two men who dispersed the devices as part of a guerilla marketing campaign avoided jail time, but the company had to pay police $2 million.
AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye / Steven Senne
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What happened? That's a good question. Red Sox Curt Schilling's epic performance of the World Series is remembered for him playing through a heel injury and the bloody evidence left on his sock. The sock eventually made it to the Hall of Fame. But, Baltimore announcer Gary Thorne claims a Boston player told him that the bloody sock was a fake. The player denied making the statement.
Success or failure?
Both. A theory suggests Mirabelli made the statement in an effort to bust Schilling's sizable ego.
AP Photo/Mike Groll
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What happened? In the heat of the U.S. presidential election, a white John McCain volunteer claimed a black Barack Obama supporter had carved a backwards B into her face. The Drudge Report publicized the story, until police discovered the woman made it up.
Success or failure?
Failure. The story threatened to enflame racial tensions.
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
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What happened? Bonnie Sweeten claimed she and her nine-year-old daughter were kidnapped by two black men. In fact, they were in Disney World as Sweeten was fleeing from an investigation into $300,000 stolen from her employer.
Success or failure?
Failure. When sentencing her to several months of jail time, a judge said Sweeten tore open America's racial wounds and called her a "calculating, manipulative, hardhearted woman." The judge didn't need to tell her husband that, as he filed for divorce after the hoax.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
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