Anatomy of a ad hoax: that Brian Eno Purina cat ad? A joke, mate.

"About seven or eight years ago" this post by RJ White begins " I made this fake ad, exhorting parents to give soda to their babies. It was done on a bored afternoon when J.D. Ryznar asked for someone to make that very specific thing on his livejournal. I whipped it together, posted it to the web, joke over."

Except, no it wasn't, because that baby-should-have-Coke® ad signed by the 'Soda Pop Board of America' went around the web again.. and again and again. Like posts on Reddit and Taco Bell Cool Ranch Doritos locos®, things on the web repeat. The funny fake ad created as a response to this livejournal post in 2002 has been intarwebs famous for ten years now. While sites like Snopes and the Museum of hoaxes attempt to set the record straight, people just don't seem to learn. It's as if we're all eleven years old, and everything on the web is true if it's funny enough.

So when the Brian Eno Caturday post appeared on Boingboing, with a 1974 Brian Eno cat food ad that explains the cat thinks six is 'terribly boring' and that's why Purina has seven flavors... Well, you'd think net-savvy people would know by now, wouldn't you? Judging by your facebook posts, twitter-shares and submissions to the hostmaster, everyone in advertising is eleven years old. I kind of suspected that, what with y'alls fascination with social media, snapchat, day-glo sticks, dressing up with scarves, and those idiotic sneaker-freaker shoes. You're eleven years old. This even explains the moustaches drawn on your fingers. Go wash your hands before dinner.

The cached versions of the (now deleted) Dangerous Minds post where it originally appeared according to BoingBoing (G+ cache, Facebook cache) reveals that it is all a joke:

Another post-modern mash-up from that comic genius named Cris Shapan. Cris is currently toiling away working on Comedy Central’s Kroll Show. He made this especially for Dangerous Minds readers. Larger version can be found here.

It's a joke, people. It's not a real ad. You should have realized this at once. I have some disturbing news though, The Love's Baby soft ads Because innocence is sexier than you think, are real though, because baby face when you have the face a girl & the body of a woman you can lure the elusive pedophile to come get you..? I don't even... I don't want to. No. Just no.