April Fools 2003 - Fake Advertising Sponsors

Fake Sponsors

In 2003 visitors were greeted by a splash page begging them to visit our new sponsors, as it was necessary to keep the website running. There was an escape link at the bottom which led them directly to SP.com... except it only led to another plea for support of our new sponsors. If a user tried to bypass the sponsor again they were re-routed directly to one of the sponsor pages.

The sponsor links were stupid sites like "Naughty Hotties" and my personal favorite "Naked Oatmeal". Most of these were recycled from the old Character Asylum website, but some were brand new made just for this event. All of the sponsor pages functioned, but were only a page or two long and all ended up leading back to SP.com.

The weird thing I can remember from this year was that I did get some e-mail messages, very serious in tone, that led to websites that really offered advertising revenue opportunities. Really? The Naked Oatmeal wasn't a dead giveaway that this wasn't real? I had to politely reply that it was all a good humored joke in the first place.

For those with curious minds, the fake sponsors can be viewed here: Naked Oatmeal, Self-Help, Naughty Hotties, and Kitty Love.