Strippers Wanted

August's fake ad unveiled

by Jay Forstner

posted 9/3/2010

"This is going to be a popular one!" wrote Greg Napoleon in his entry that correctly identified the "Strippers Wanted!" Fake Ad for Millar-Borweb painting on p. 53 of the August Observer. He was right. The ad elicited a whopping 275 entries, which might have been a record for August if we were clever enough to keep track of such things.

"Strippers Wanted is a small gem of the double entendre," wrote Ellen Katz. "Shaker Avenue is a nice touch too."

The risque nature of the ad prompted at least one reader to wonder whether more women or men would spot the ad. "Good one!" wrote Andy Yagle. "But the easiest ever to find--bet you get a record number of replies. Interesting to do a breakdown of replies by gender." We tried. It's always difficult to determine a person's gender from an email, what with all the entries from people named Pat or Taylor or Moon Unit, but a quick scan revealed that women outnumbered men by approximately two to one. Or, as the Beach Boys harmonized, "two girls for every boy."

One of those female entries, from Georgeann Brown, was chosen as our winner. She's taking her $25 gift certificate to Zingerman's.

To enter this month's contest, find the fake ad in the September print edition and follow the instructions on the bottom of the "Back Page." The Fake Ad always includes the word "arborweb"--in August, it spanned the name of Millar-Borweb.   

[Originally published in September, 2010.]