Cleveland Frowns 2008 Person of the Year Nominee: Lyndon Antcliff

On the night of the day that we nominated Ralph Hardy for our 2008 Person of the Year award, we had beers with our good friend DF who said that while the story of Ralph Hardy was probably too good to be true, he was glad that it was written in the first place. So are we, which is why we're nominating online marketer Lyndon Antcliff for our 2008 Person of the Year award because it turns out that he completely fabricated the Hardy story to help his client, Money.co.uk, direct more traffic to its website. According to Antcliff himself (look in the comments for commenter "Lyndon"), "the story is [a]bsolutely-completely-utterly a fabrication, a tissue of lies weaved in a fog of deceit. Or what most people would call satire. Nowhere do I see the author claiming this is true or that it is attributed to a news report."

When taken to task by fellow internet marketers, Antcliff was unapologetic: "[A]s I am not a journalist and as I did not claim it to be true I don't feel bad at all. I let people decide for themselves wether it is true. News organisations contstantly publish untruths dressed up and news and people don't seem to mind all that much. So when Fox news picks up a story with no corraboration or even an author and then dresses it up as true, that is where your ire should be pointed at. . . . My background is as a fiction writer, stories are written as if they actually happen, it's what Shakespeare did, it's what Hemingway did. I wrote in the style of a news report but it was fiction, just like the Daily News makes a program in the style of a news show. . . . I didn't dupe the media, the idiots duped themselves, they are responsible for what they print not me. If they are stupid enough to print a story that has no basis in fact and does not even have a writer listed then tough! I don't give a toss what they think, if they want to play fast and loose with their website it's their problem. It's a pretty stupid thing to say I am responsible for what someone else puts on their website. If you are going to print a story, get it verified. I know that and I am not even a journalist, lol."

Lol indeed. Except that we're not sure that Money.co.uk doesn't have a fraud claim against Antcliff. Philipp Lenssen points out at Google Blogoscope that Antcliff "managed to lower the image of his apparent client, Money.co.uk, who got themselves involved in a very shady marketing technique," and "Jonathan Crossfield writes [at his blog], 'if this article is incorrect, how can a reader trust any of the financial advice contained on the site?'"

Cleveland Frowns hopes that this nomination (and perhaps the big prize) will take the sting out of any judgment that Antcliff might be forced to pay. We also think that Antcliff should go back to fiction writing. The Ralph Hardy Chronicles anyone?

There's a smarmy piece on this over at Gawker as well which is worthwhile mainly for a link to this story about Jenkem. Leroy Jenkems! And pardon us for being optimists, Pareene. We think that the occasional internet hoax is a small price to pay.