DAVID MANNING (FICTITIOUS WRITER)

"'David Manning'" was a fictitious film critic, created by a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation around July 2000 to give consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures. Several blurbs posted under the name "David Manning" were written for the medieval action/drama ''A Knight's Tale'' (citing Heath Ledger as "this year's hottest new star!") and Rob Schneider's comedy ''The Animal'' ("Another winner!"),
John Horn. "The Reviewer Who Wasn't There." ''Newsweek'' web exclusive. June 2, 2001. the latter of which generally received very poor reviews by real critics.

Contents
Details
Trivia
See also
References
External links

Details


He often signed as 'Dave Manning' and falsely claimed to be a writer for the ''Ridgefield Press''. ''Newsweek'' reporter John Horn discovered that the ''Ridgefield Press'' (the newspaper where Manning supposedly had been working) had never heard of him. He disclosed the truth about Manning in June 2001. The article came around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise Mel Gibson's film ''The Patriot''. These occurrences, in tandem, raised questions and controversy about ethics in movie marketing practices.
On 3 August 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement"Sony to pay $1.5m for film hoax," ''Irish Independent'', August 5, 2005. and agreed to refund $5 to anyone who saw ''Hollow Man'', ''The Animal'', ''The Patriot'', ''A Knight's Tale'' or ''Vertical Limit'' in American theatres between 3 August 2000 and 31 October 2001.

Trivia



★ ''David Manning'' is a friend of Matthew Cramer, the Sony marketing executive responsible for the insertions. ''The Ridgefield Press'' was chosen as the friend was from Ridgefield, Connecticut.

See also



Infiltration marketing

References


External links



David Manning entry from the Museum of Hoaxes

MetaCritic and RottenTomato rankings for the movies reviewed by Manning

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