How We Conned the British Press | Fakes, Frauds & Scammers

It was the story that outraged Middle England. 13 art students claimed they took a grant, spent it on holiday in Spain, and then had the audacity to call their escapade ‘art’.

As planned, the press went after the students – writing column inches after column inches of righteous indignation. The students’ sunny snaps were printed in nearly every newspaper, and their motivations were interrogated on the evening news.

Except, this is exactly what the students wanted: the media-feeding frenzy was, in fact, the result of an elaborate and skillfully executed hoax.

Rather than lounge in the sun on taxpayer money the students had actually gone into hiding for a week, busying themselves with faking their photographs, postcards and props.

When the news broke that this was all a hoax the story only grew bigger. The art students had managed to hoodwink the all-powerful British tabloid media. The predictable media reaction, they said, had been the real art piece all along.

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[THCk]

Today this problem of the press not fact checking anything and presenting their opinions as fact is so much worse. They and their families would have gotten thousands of death threads, the media and politicians would have campaigned for their arrest, and some people would simply not believe the 2nd story and believe in conspiracy theories.

[s.s.s]

This is genius. The students are damn genius. If I were their professor, I would give them an A for this, and turn it into a thesis or dissertation

[CalAndAly]

What a brilliant piece! The implications are so relevant today with how fast disinfo spreads unchecked!

[grafito]

"You shouldn't believe everything you see, thought, or are told" that is why it was ART

[joiscara]

I was 5 when I heard about the story. My nan’s siblings were clamoring about how some student took the piss and spent money on a holiday. They were baffled when the reports confirmed the artists fooled everyone.

[lijenamacka]

I once read a book by a journalist who lived in Moscow during the 1990s and apparently back then there were travel agencies specialized in this. They would provide their customers with all the 'proof' of an exclusive holiday (fabricate photos etc.) in order for their customers to make friends and social circle believe they went on fancy vacations.

[chrisball]

Despite inflation, £1, 000 wasn't a fortune, even in 1998. At the time there were MP's filing dodgy expenses claims for way more than that on a regular basis and the press ignored it. I bet a bunch of the journalists who reported the story were probably fiddling their taxes for considerably more than that. The British press (especially the tabloids), have always loved kicking down without care for the facts. They've changed very little since this stunt other than having seen their influence wane.

[jrge-yo]

Plot twist, this story is completely fabricated. There is not even an art school in Leeds !

[JaviTruloveSims]

So they invented the"Fake Instagram Vacations" Post? Cool

[zohramartini]

You exposed social media before it even existed :) well done

[smith]

Ohh noooo not £1000. How will they ever financially recover from it?

[CapitalCLYDE]

The guy at 8:36 totally missed the point of the entire idea lmao. The point is how easy it is to just hoodwink or fool an entire nation.

[Xanaduum]

I did something very similar for my MA art project with the local press in 2010, regarding occult artifacts found in a local wood in Staffordshire called Hopwas Woods. The story ended up in far flung places like Australia and all over the web as well as the newspaper. A copycat I wasn't even aware of started to feed into the story after a while which was pretty weird. Mixing fact and fiction together as an artistic practice can make your life quite strange indeed.

[IceMaidenxx]

I was so ready to judge the 'con-artists' when I saw the thumbnail 😅😢 As it started I was like, 'they don't seem the least bit regretful 😒'

Definitely a bit lesson on not judging people so quickly or easily 😅

Love this! They worked incredibly hard (and must have suffered immensely. Media storms and backlashes are cruel) and I hope they were rewarded for it in their final grades, Art Careers and infamy at University of Leeds, Art School 😄

[ryanzook]

This is a great piece 💯👏🙌 perfect example right now to show that you shouldn't take what your told by media and the social media with a fact of how much your being told the truth 🤔💯🤣👏🙌

[stelladallas]

Haha I love this, ex member of the press and I'm from Scarborough hahaha . You are all brilliant. Thanks for sharing

[RandomBogey]

I’m kind of more surprised by the fact that it was even plausible for thirteen people, or whatever, to book round trip flights for less than £1, 000, much less fund a holiday in Spain as well. Gotta love inflation, and air travel prices skyrocketing, no pun intended…

[chronic_payne]

Ahh the 90’s you absolute brilliant decade you

[Max-jsmx]

8:40 "it doesn't generate great debate" as the entire media is debating about it and so is the guy himself. 😂😂😂😂

[EyesOfByes]

I often fool my family with screen shots from videogames