The news of the wannabe model from Switzerland that last week managed to fool a famous Swiss newspaper to publish a fake double spread Gucci ad featuring himself (see the ad below) is making the headlines all over the world.

<== the fake ad

It seems that he is a well known prankster (or just an egomaniac desperate for his share of the lime light), which means that this could be a genuine prank, but there is a slight possiblility for this to be just a brilliant PR stunt developed by Gucci, and here's why: the newspaper says that there was not enough time to check with Gucci if this ad was for real or not because the request came in only two days before the deadline.

Well, having an advertising background, I can tell you that:

1. you don't need two days for a phone call
2. is hard to believe that they had a double spread available in their top-selling weekend issue for last minute requests
   
3. usually, all the major advertisers (and Gucci qualifies here easily) are not doing the media buying directly but via a media agency, and a request coming from an unknown person "from Gucci" should have rang some alarm bells at the Swiss newspaper, to say the least
4. it is not enough to send just a home made jpg file to get your ad printed in a magazine or in a newspaper; you need a hi-res document prepared in accordance with some very clear specifications (size, format, bleed, etc.)

In a way this reminds me of the famous Paris Hilton fake albums done by Bansky and Danger Mouse, stunt that boosted the sales for the real album like crazy and kept Paris Hilton in the headlines for weeks. I don't know if the record label admited that the prank was actually a PR stunt, but I can bet my money on the later.

Anyway, even if this is just a prank (which I don't believe), the main benefits of it goes straight to Gucci, that is now mentioned all over the world in relation to this story (just google "Gucci fake ad" to see what I mean) so they should give the poor wannabe a nice bonus (or at least pay for that damn ad, for Pete's sake).