20th Century Fox stretched for relevance by erecting fake news website to promote film “A Cure for Wellness,” but apologized later. The $40 million-budgeted psychological thriller “A Cure for Wellness” premieres in theaters this weekend.
Phony news websites were anchored with “an elaborate, yet fictitious news story claiming that President Donald Trump met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a remote wellness center in the Swiss Alps prior to the November 2016 U.S. presidential election,” says a Hollywood Reporter story by Pamela McClintock. That “was one of the stories appearing on a handful of fake websites that popped up earlier this week, calling themselves ‘The Sacramento Dispatch’, ‘The Houston Leader’, the ‘NY Morning Post’ and ‘The Salt Lake City Guardian.’ ” Those newspapers don’t exist; every attempt was made to make those websites seem real and deceive readers.
When the campaign was running, clicking for stories served up information about the movie. The outcry over a major media company — Fox — intentionally planting fake news embarrassed the movie studio, which promised to tighten oversight of marketing in the future.
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