April Fools' death notice in WaPost.

What an idiot:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102564.html

An "in memoriam" ad about a former U.S. ambassador that was placed as an April Fools' Day joke backfired yesterday.

A photo of Edward M. Gabriel, a very much alive international business consultant who was the U.S. ambassador to Morocco from 1997 to 2001, topped an ad on Page B8 in yesterday's Washington Post.

In language reminiscent of the movie "Brokeback Mountain," the $322.20 ad said, "Though I no longer have you as my partner, this day will always be OUR anniversary. . . . I could never quit you."

The ad was taken out by J. Peter Segall, a public relations executive and lawyer. Segall is paying for a retraction in today's Post. Segall said last night that he is a mature man who made an immature mistake.

(more)

 

I'm pretty indifferent on the contents of this thread, but I didn't want 21 to have a complete whiff on replies.

I hope someone can return the favor to me sometime.

 

Sounds like a stupid prank that seems harmless and isn't -- like a lot of stupid pranks.

 

There are very subjects that are taboo from a comedy/joke perspective in this day and age.

Death is one of them.

Especially in reference to a person who is still alive.

Bad, bad idea.

 

The best part would be is if the former ambassador said everyone who complained was in on the obit notice and told the other dude "April Fools" then "ha ha I made you spend more money in the Washington Post."

 

You would be stunned at the number of prank obits that make the paper...

 

Am sure when the time is right, countless numbers of female teachers who slept with their teenage male students would be willing to have their way with you on the obit page

 

I know of a paper that used to fax (this was in the mid 1990s) fake ones in to make sure the obit writers were checking their facts.

 

Who fucking jokes about someone dying when they haven't died?

Morons.

 

And he made a "Brokeback Mountain" reference. What year is this? He should have made a crack about Viagra.

 

That was what really caught my attention, and why I posted the story. It was April Fools Day, and someone takes out a cheesy ad like that....no one questions it as a gag?? Dumb.

 

Craziest thing happened a week or so ago, we had no obits. No one died. No former residents died. Never had that happen before regardless of the size of paper I was at.

Of course we got complaints wondering why we didn't run obits.