An Apology for Last Year's April Fools
Penn Jillette

We printed a phony ad that got us in a
lot of trouble. We're really sorry,
swear to god.

We took the bottom half of my back page, printed a border that said it was a joke and then a phony ad for last April Fools Day. There were no jokes in the ad, everything looked legit except the prices: ______________________ all for $______.__. All you had to do was clip it and give it to a sucker. The chump would call the 800 number for the "too good to be true" package and get a tape of me berating them. It worked too well. You people are amazing. You handed it out, copied it and FAXed it. At least a few of you scanned it and E-mailed it all over hell. Even without the glossy paper once the warning border was gone it was a virus, swallowed hook, line, sinker, rod, reel and part of the dock. My editor, Carol Day, gave it to Bill Machrone, the cheese from Ziff Davis Labs and PC Mag. He looked at the ad, and picked up the phone. We got calls. So many that the entire PCC voice mail system crashed. The line rang constantly and was always busy so people started calling the main switchboard driving the receptionists nutty and tieing up that line. Facilities telecommunications staff set up 10 more answering machines all with my berating voice. A staff person was taking calls full time, calming people down and referring them to the legal department. Some dope said he'd sold his car to buy the package and now he was going to sue. Compaq was so inundated that they threatened to pull the plug on all future advertising with us. People wrote half-assed legalese letters saying they "accepted the offer on page...," I guess they figured that if they sounded official, the police would make us give them a computer. It got lots national press, most of it bad. It was an irresponsible, stupid joke. I think we all learned something.