A spooky bridge named after Maine horror author Stephen King? It could have been real, except it was tweeted out by the Maine Department of Transportation on April Fools’ Day.
“If you’re afraid of heights, the observatory at the top of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge is a scary place,” read the post. “That’s why we’re renaming the bridge after Maine native and master of horror Stephen King. The bridge will officially get its new name and new look on the 31st of this month.”
Since April has only 30 days, the post was clearly a prank. Another giveaway was the movie poster-like art of a bridge at night, topped by bats, like the famous gates outside the author’s house in Bangor, and a red balloon like the one from King’s 1986 novel “It.”
The Maine Brewers’ Guild also crafted some April 1 fun on its Facebook page, announcing the formation of a national Brewers Space Guild “to help breweries go boldly where no beer has been brewed before, outer space.” BruShift Aerospace was also cited, a pun on Brunswick rocket startup BluShift.
Though both were so obviously April Fools’ social-media gags, it’s against my nature to take anything for granted. So I confirmed the Maine DOT news was fake with the department spokesman, who replied, “C’mon now. April Fools!” Similarly, Maine Brewers’ Guild executive director Sean Sullivan reassured me that the group was just having some fun.
Yet if my mother said she loved me, I’d check it out, as per the famous journalism mantra from my hometown of Chicago. That’s especially true on April 1, with gags popping up in all parts of the world.
In Belgium, where I spent most of my professional career, daily papers are notoriously full of manufactured stories on April 1, known in French as “Poissons d’Avril,” which can be a nightmare for the news wires.
Some stories give themselves away as fake right away, while others are more subtle. European companies also issue gag news releases, though they can sometimes backfire, as one did for Volkswagen this week.
Three days before April Fools’ Day, the publicly traded German car maker announced that it was rebranding as “Voltswagen” amid a stronger commitment to electric vehicles, which pushed up the price of its American depository receipts as much as 12.5% the next day, Bloomberg News reported. Sticking to the lie and denying it was an April Fools’ Day joke, VW later admitted that it was a joke gone wrong, opening the company up to worldwide ridicule.
It remains to be seen whether the wolf of Wolfsburg that cried wolf will ever be believed again.
A more dangerous April Fools’ Day prank happened in Brussels this week where a crowd gathered in a park for a fake music festival called “La Boum” promoted on social media, flouting strict outdoor gathering restrictions during the pandemic. Thousands showed up and police were called in, one of whom was injured.
While the incident shows that humor can backfire with serious repercussions, that probably won’t put an end to the longstanding fake-news tradition on April 1.
It remains in vogue here, too, not just via social media but also through press releases disguised as news, with manufactured names, quotes and data.
Mainebiz received three such releases, including an announcement of a new beer laboratory in Maine, launched in partnership with a Max Blanck Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, N.J. (In reality, there is a Max Planck-Princeton Center for Fusion and Astro Plasma Physics named for the German physicist.)
There was also a release from Auburn-based Connectivity Point announcing it had acquired a company called Sweet Wiring Inc. of Hershey, Pa., featuring a campy image of a hardhat-wearing gingerbread person. We also got one from Portland’s Bristol Seafood about the world’s first home aquaculture system.
Those April Foolers didn’t fool us, and might want to heed the advice of Nancy Marshall of Marshall Communications in Augusta, who recommends that companies never put out gag releases for April Fools’ Day.
Journalists, she said, “tend to be factual people who don’t like to be fooled. They don’t like to be lied to, and they don’t like to feel like their integrity has been compromised. They want to be able to trust their sources.” She also said that good PR people should position themselves as reliable sources to the media.
Asked whether she thinks social media is more appropriate than a manufactured news release for April Fooling, Marshall said she thinks it’s perfect for the Maine Turnpike Authority since their signs are always tongue in cheek. “But maybe not for the Maine State Police or [Maine CDC Director] Dr. Shah.”
In other words, anyone wanting to flex their funny bones next April 1 should think twice before hitting “send” on a made-up news release or risk never getting reporters’ attention again. There’s also a strong possibility of legitimate press releases dated April 1 getting stuck in humor-holiday traffic.
To borrow from The Who, we pray we don’t get fooled again.