Even if a radio publicity stunt may go horribly wrong, some schools of thought believe that there is no such thing as a bad publicity stunt. However, when the local police get involved, then it is time to rethink the strategy. As an April Fool's Stunt, Z104 (WNVZ-FM), a Top 20 hits station in Norfolk, VA decided that it was a great idea to tell people that hip-hop artist 50 Cent would be shooting a video on a local beach. Then sweetening the pot was the lie that 50 cent would also be listening to demo CDs.
Officer Adam Bernstein with Virginia Beach Police said, "It was a joke and we appreciate that. But, as a police department we have to worry about crowd control and traffic, even if it is a hoax you might have thousands of people show up anyway."
Even though the article didn't quite capture the disappointment that the community listeners had, the way that the large response of gullible people caused a potential safety hazard was well along the out-of-bounds standard of April Fools Pranks.
