A Swiss newspaper prints a fake Gucci ad

Posted by Helen Lee at 4:06 pm March 3rd, 2007 | 0 comments

Would you believe this ad was a real Gucci? The guy sort of looks like French and Arsenal soccer player, Thierry Henry, so it could be…

Well it’s not.

This is a picture of a man who had called up a Swiss newspaper, SonntagsZeitung, to book a two-page ad of himself posing beside a bottle of Gucci perfume. He claimed to represent the Italian fashion house and booked a expensive colour spread in Sunday’s edition, a spokesman for the newspaper said.

Christoph Zimmer told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the man asked for the 60,000-Swiss-franc (about $50,000) bill to be sent to Gucci.

“We’ve spoken to Gucci and apologized for the mistake,” Zimmer said. “We’re going to try and get the money back from this guy, but we don’t rate our chances.”

The Milan, Italy-based Gucci could not be reached for comment.

Zimmer said the paper fell for the scam because the call arrived too late for the advertising department to check whether it was genuine.

Some people will do just about anything to get into the papers.

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