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Girl Quits On Dry Erase Board a Hoax

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-this-job-and-shove-it dept.

suraj.sun writes "It's the same old story: young woman quits, uses dry erase board and series of pictures to let entire office know the boss is a sexist pig, exposes his love of playing FarmVille during work hours." Story seem too good to be true? It probably is, at least according to writer Peter Kafka. Even so, Jay Leno and Good Morning America have already reached out to "Jenny."

16 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Old, and fake by Gruturo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nice, story published hours after it was revealed to be a hoax / stunt: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/11/elyse-porterfield/

    --

    Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
    1. Re:Old, and fake by Slippery+Pete · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are correct:

      http://thechive.com/2010/08/11/a-word-from-jenny-16-photos/

    2. Re:Old, and fake by BKX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The real question is who didn't immediately know it was fake? I mean, "The Chive"? That soundss aan aweful lot like The Onion to me.

    3. Re:Old, and fake by Idbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Holy! 15 minutes of fame with a hoax! Hot actress from LA name+lastname are very public now. Way to quickly boost your career!

    4. Re:Old, and fake by Seumas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I am astonished at the number of people who fell for this. It just proves that people have no operational critical thinking skills and just take anything they're fed as the truth. This is just a small example of how they treat more vital things like news of current events. If the AP wrote it or the local news anchor parroted it from a teleprompter, or a government organization released a statement, then it must all be true and taken at face value.

      As for this particular incident, it was instantly obvious to everyone with a two digit IQ that it was fake (it didn't last long enough or fool enough people to properly call this an actual hoax).

      What gave it away? Well, for one thing, are we supposed to believe that an HPOA like that was actually answering phones and doing some douchebag's dirty work in some great aspiration to be a stock broker? Hardly. In fact, I think my first sarcastic comment moments after this story first popped up in links from people I know was "Like a HPOA like that has to work as anything but a model".

      The second give-away is the clearly fake office.

      The third give-away is the quality of the photographs and the lighting.

      The the second and third elements above, they combine to give you that very strong "reality porn shoot" vibe. You could tell people that these photos are actually from some new OfficeBangBus website and everyone would believe it, because it just has that "fake staged office, professional lighting, pro-sumer camera" look to it.

      If the idiots behind this wanted the "hoax" to really succeed, they would have found a real office for her to stand in and snapped shots with a consumer point and click camera in whatever the real life office lighting was.

      The most offensive part is that this wasn't even a successful internet hoax. Most people immediately called it out as a fake and it wasn't even more than a few hours before it was proven to be a fake. And yet, nobody gives a fuck and all sorts of media outlets are going to give it coverage. What is there to cover? It's a non-story, other than on a few websites like Slashdot where it actually has some minor relevance. How does this deserve any television play? And what will their angle be? "So, you were a chick that was hired to stand there and be photographed in a failed internet hoax... uh...". I mean, if you were going to talk to ANYONE about it, why would it be the person who was the least involved? It's not like that girl came up with the idea or executed it. She responded to an audition call and stood there holding a whiteboard for a couple hours.

      I still believe this is far more than a mere "hoax" attempt. It seems clear to me that the guys behind it WANTED it to be known that it was a hoax as quickly as possible (if they had not admitted it so quickly, it would have dragged on a little longer). It sounds to me like they wanted to create a hoax AND get the attention for having created it all in one fell swoop. Either to get attention for themselves in some sort of "hey, we're a great media agency - hire us to promote your stuff!" attempt. . . . OR they were hired to do this by NBC or someone. Not as a "hoax" but as a "fake hoax" where the attempt wasn't to fool people, but to get everyone to pay attention to the girl so they could then announce that they're giving her a sit-com of her own and she's the star (which was already planned BEFORE the hoax was executed, surely).

      It'd be a lot like saying "we're a helium company and to promote our product, we're going to manufacturer an event where a little kid gets stuck in his dad's blimp and floats across the country and is covered live on the news".

    5. Re:Old, and fake by Cougar+Town · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow. You seriously know how to take just about all the fun out of something that was pretty entertaining. Sometimes you just need to shut the fuck and have a good laugh and realize that it doesn't even matter if it was real or a hoax.

      Enjoy life - don't analyze everything to the point that all meaning is lost.

    6. Re:Old, and fake by spamking · · Score: 3, Funny

      [crazy Britney Spears Fan] Leave Seumas alone! [/crazy Britney Spears Fan]

  2. Re:Fake by IBBoard · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why let the fact that it is fake stop it being promoted as the truth on Slashdot? ;)

  3. She's an actress by HangingChad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But still an HPOA.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  4. As Teal'c would say by PmanAce · · Score: 4, Funny

    Indeed.

    --
    Tired of my customary (Score:1)
  5. Re:Fake by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, your erection is also a hoax.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  6. The jetblue guy did a better job then this! by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The jetblue guy did a better job then this!

    1. Re:The jetblue guy did a better job then this! by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It was grabbing the beer on the way out that was the stroke of genius.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  7. Re:I would have fired her too by darkitecture · · Score: 4, Funny

    G-R-A-M-M-A-R

    grammar

    --The Spelling Nazi

  8. Just call Jenny up and ask... by otis+wildflower · · Score: 5, Funny

    867-5309

  9. /., you're trying too hard by dsoltesz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dear /.,

    Please stop trying to be Digg/Reddit. It's really quite embarrassing. You post these stories way past their expiration date and provide no meaningful content to contribute enlightenment or lolz. We've already seen the story. We've already read the comments. Don't fall into the trap of pandering mainstream drivel to drive traffic. If my grandma knows about it, it doesn't belong on /. Even in "Idle" your readers expect more.

    Lovingly yours,
    #563978