Publicity Stunts - The Art of the Prank

May 12, 2007January 15, 2019

Off the hook

Massachusetts won’t prosecute men in hoax bomb scare
By Svea Herbst
May 11, 2007

BOSTON (Reuters) – Massachusetts will not prosecute two men who planted blinking electronic signs in a “guerrilla” advertising campaign that sparked a terrorism scare in central Boston, the state’s attorney general said on Friday.

In return for public apologies and 140 hours of community service, prosecutors dropped criminal charges in a case state Attorney General Martha Coakley said her office would have lost.

The men were charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. “That charge would not have been successful,” Coakley said.

She said there was no evidence Sean Stevens, 28, and Peter Berdovsky, 27, intended to cause panic on January 31 when police mistook the small battery-powered electronic billboards for possible bombs. Read the full story.

Here’s video documentation by Zebbler of the original action: Glitchcrew’s guerilla graffiti light installation in Boston on January 31, 2007, done on behalf of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the Cartoon Network.

Here’s more information about the original action from boston.com and more video including the breaking news coverage (from Fox News) of the incident from robotspiratesninjas: Continue reading “Off the hook”

May 7, 2007January 15, 2019

Street Action

Two clever publicity stunts from Armando Alves’ blog in Lisbon Portugal. Alves works for DRAFTFCB, producer of both videos.

#1 – Zebra Crossing

As vàtimas de acidentes de automà³vel nem sempre està£o dentro da viatura.

Car accident victims aren’t always inside the vehicle.

Editor’s note: On the opposite side of the spectrum, in 1984, Joey Skaggs created “Walk Right!” — an ad hoc group of vigilante sidewalk etiquette enforcers who patrolled the streets to make New York City a better place to live and walk.

#2 – Taxi Sign

Se bebeu, nà£o arrisque. Ligue 707 308 294.

If you’ve been drinking, don’t risk it. Call 707 308 294.

Thanks Wooster Collective

May 6, 2007January 15, 2019

A pair of Queens

Queen Elizabeth II attends 133rd Derby
USA Today
By Bruce Schreiner (AP)

LOUISVILLE “” Queen Elizabeth II, a horse enthusiast, got her first look Saturday at Churchill Downs, a racing icon best known for its twin spires and hospitality on Derby Day when mint juleps flow and fancy hats are in fashion.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, arrived a little more than two hours before the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, and went immediately to a private suite. The royal couple had traveled to Kentucky from Virginia on Friday, landing in Lexington, 70 miles to the east…

For fans with no chance of getting an up-close glimpse of the queen, there was an alternative. A Queen Elizabeth impersonator drew long lines in the track’s paddock area.

For a distinctive Kentucky flair, she posed with a look-alike of Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain.

Judith Gindy of Miami, the impersonator who refers to herself as Queen Elizabeth Too, admitted to being a great admirer. “I’m very excited. It’s my dream to meet her,” Gindy said…

The royal couple’s visit to the track is part of a six-day trip to the United States that also includes visits to Virginia and Washington.

April 19, 2007January 15, 2019

The Great and Perverse Dexter

From Mark Borkowski:

I love the notion of stunts and pranks if the end product generates meaningful content and lingers in the conscious. When Joey asked me to contribute to Pranks I had some great fun tripping down memory lane, and remember a bizarre prank show I staged with performance artist Dexter Augustus.

I have worked with the great and perverse Dexter, who staged daily shows in the front room of a respectable Edinburgh Morningside house (where “sex” is what nuggets of coal is packed in) to a maximum audience of six. He let the audience in for free and, on the basis that critics don’t pay for their seats, to retain the protocol of inequality, he paid each reviewer £10 to come in. He refused Ruby Wax entry because he didn’t like her coat.

On the roof of the house, he placed rave-sized speakers blasting out a repetitive egocentric two-minute ditty on a tape loop, which attracted police attention when local residents claimed they were being subjected to the aural equivalent of Chinese water torture. The coverage was superb. Continue reading “The Great and Perverse Dexter”

April 5, 2007January 15, 2019

Straight from the pranksters bag of tricks…

Here’s an example of how a carefully placed falsified document can foment a conspiracy theory. But remember, conspiracy theories are generally neither completely true nor completely false. That’s what gives them legs. The links here show the story from two opposing points of view: