Cooking Show at Sigma Nu Alpha

January's Fake ad revealed

by Jay Forstner

posted 2/4/2012

We received 155 entries correctly identifying the January Fake Ad for someone to host a cooking show at the Sigma Nu Alpha fraternity (page 38).

"I liked this one a lot," wrote Dan Jarrell. "It had the verisimilitude of a bunch of college kids looking for a new way of getting fed, saving money, and appealing to the narcissistic personality of every Gordon Ramsey wanna-be." Wow. "Verisimilitude" and "narcissistic" in one sentence. Who says America is being dumbed down?

Debbie Ash thought those fictitious fraternity fellows were up to something. "Seemed suspicious," she wrote, "like a sneaky way to get a free fraternity cook."

Sheila Darden "actually cut out the ad and put it in my bag to take to church with me to give to one of our church members," she wrote. "Then, I made it to the end of the Observer and saw the information about 'Fake Ad.' ... it would have been a little embarrassing since it did not exist."

Eric Sobicinski found the giveaway: "Arborweb" bridges the 5th and 6th lines of [the] ad body," he noted, from "Ann Arbor" to "We buy all the groceries."

Laura Pressprich was chosen as our winner. She's taking her gift certificate to Zingerman's, where they still refer to the Fake Ad Czar as "that guy we always had to call at six in the morning to get him to come to work."

To enter this month's contest, find the fake ad in the February Observer and follow the instructions in the box at the bottom of the Back Page. Hint: the Fake Ad always includes the word "arborweb."   

[Originally published in February, 2012.]