It’s amazing what 400$ worth of tape measure, box cutters and some electrical tape can accomplish these days. With these tools and a little ambition the guys at WindingRoad online mag were able to fool thousands of readers and hundreds of Automotiove journalists by creating the rumored, but unannounced, Blue Devil Corvette. Among those fooled not only included little and big blogs but also big shot automotive mags such as MotorTrend and Autoweek.
The secret was revealed in the latest online edition (01/01/07) of WindingRoad. During the past 24 hours many blogs and internet sites were forced to publish “retractions”. Some were pissed, some found it amusing, but most were left speechless.
Carscoop didn’t join in on the ring around the Blue Devil game not because we weren’t fooled but when the news came out, the corner bar had 99c drafts plus my girlfriend had PMS so I was indisposed for the weekend.
Anyway, in my personal opinion WindingRoad might have created a poor reputation as a reliable news source but I’m sure it has succeeded in increasing its site traffic…tremendously which is certainly what it set out to do in the first place. Big deal! It took a whole magazine staff to create a fake “something” that one person could accomplish on a photoshop in a damn internet café. Aside from the fact that faking news has been done in the past- remember the faux beheading video in
WindingRoad says that they did it to show GM how bad the public wants this Blue Devil and that the “Game is over” seeing as all the big mags fell for it “hook, line and sinker.” Carscoop says, you reap what you sow.
See what fellow bloggers say: Autoblog.com, Jalopnik, Corvetteblogger
