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):

Photos of what happened next: (more…)

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. (more…)

Submitted by Tim Jackson:

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

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.

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

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