Tim Jackson - The Art of the Prank

February 23, 2011December 15, 2023

Let Them Eat Cake!

From Tim Jackson:

This guy stole Paris Hilton’s 30th birthday cake – from her party – and then fed it to the homeless on Skid Row in L.A.. Let them eat cake, indeed!

From Paz’s Facebook:

I woke up this morning with a $2000 birthday cake in my living room. It’s big. It’s red. It says “Paris”. And its fucking delicious.

24 hours ago I got a call from my well-connected buddy Kevin. “Dude, I’m crashing Paris Hilton’s birthday tonight. Pretty sure I can get you in,” he says. “Pretty sure you can’t,” I say. “Pretty sure I will,” he says.

90 minutes later we’re strolling down a red carpet like we belong there.

Read the rest of this hilarious story.

Read more about it here (in case you don’t believe it):

Paris Hilton’s birthday cake burgled, Sydney Morning Herald, February 23, 2011

Paris Hilton’s birthday cake stolen, nobody cares, Salon, February 18, 2011

Photos of what happened next: Continue reading “Let Them Eat Cake!”

March 27, 2010December 15, 2023

Guerrilla Marketing: Dante’s Inferno Revisited

Submitted by Tim Jackson:

The Electronic Arts campaign for the video game ‘Dante’s Inferno’, recently reviewed in the Times, had quite a release campaign. It utilized some interesting hoaxes, including a fake Christian protest. Curious, I hunted down the whole list of ad campaign stunts.

To hell and back: EA’s guerrilla marketing campaign for ‘Dante’s Inferno’
by David Griner
Adworks Blog

Introduction
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Take, for example, the marketing of Electronic Arts’s blockbuster new video game, Dante’s Inferno. Last year, the company set about trying to educate the public not only about the game but about a 14th-century literary classic and the very nature of human morality. What ensued was one of the most complex campaigns in video-game history, one that got EA burned for fakery and sexism, and then””thanks to a bold change of direction””lauded for intellect and creativity. Continue reading “Guerrilla Marketing: Dante’s Inferno Revisited”

August 2, 2009December 15, 2023

Prank Traditions

Submitted by Tim Jackson:

A great prank? As it was 208 years ago, I thought I’d mention it…

swift_modest_proposal1-100 I’ve often thought of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public” as a great early satire as prank.

dog3-100 Not dissimilar to the Joey Skaggs dog food restaurant hoax/satire.

pr3404-t9_00007-100 I just heard about Daniel Defoe’s “The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church” written on July 31, in 1701. His satire called for the savage elimination of dissenters. When the church found out it was parody, he was (allegedly) pilloried. The crowd threw flowers instead of fruit.

images: astroblogos.wordpress.com & Indiana.edu