On April 1, local marketing agency Visit St. Pete/Clearwater spread word about a “rare marine mammal” that had been spotted off our coast, and their story about the “manaphin” — a manatee-dolphin hybrid — was reposted by news outlets around the world. The agency went so far as to create a mock website dedicated to the manaphin, replete with tacky graphics and misspellings. VSPC officials pulled the prank to show the world a fun, personal side of the St. Pete/Clearwater brand, and it seems to have worked: Yahoo! and ABC News praised the hoax as one of the top pranks in the world, and the UK news website Telegraph.co.uk rated it 7 out of 10, placing it in a tie for its highest-scoring April Fool’s prank of 2014. VisitStPeteClearwater.com
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2014.