Dog racing on ice? (The Daily Mirror). Nicolas Sarkozy to be stretched? (the Sun - natch). UBS share price soars on news of massive write-downs? (All financial press - the madness of markets).
On April Fool’s day it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Nor can you trust newspaper advertising - witness BMW's campaign today promoting Canine Repellent Alloy Protection, an ingenious system of delivering an electric shock to
any dog thinking of relieving itself against a BMW wheel.
The online Museum of Hoaxes compiles a list of the
top 100 April Fool’s day hoaxes of all time and the
top ten worst wheezes.
Neither list include Google’s spoof moon base, Copernicus, which advertised for staff in 2004. Nor is there any mention of the hapless FT religious correspondent who was duped into writing up an entire page about the discovery of a new gospel by an elusive
European academic, Batson D Seiling.