When theCHIVE.com posted photos of a girl named “Jenny” quitting her job via a dry erase board, throngs of unsuspecting disgruntled employees lauded her moxie, and helped the story go viral via email and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. There was even a “1,000,000 Strong for Jenny DryErase to Pose in Playboy” Facebook fan page created. Little did they know that this was just another hoax from the guys who brought us the Trump Tip Hoax and the Teen Texting Disaster Hoax.
On Wednesday, creators John and Leo Resig confirmed that the HOPA/HPOA Dry Erase Board Girl was indeed a hoax, and “Jenny’s” identity was revealed to be 22-year-old aspiring actress Elyse Porterfield, who responded to a photo shoot casting ad in Actors Access last Thursday.
Porterfield told TechCrunch, “When I went into the audition, I didn’t know what it was for — but thought that this couldn’t be too bawdy or promiscuous or else they wouldn’t have me holding a dry erase board.”
According to John Resig, the hoax wasn’t created to get media attention or traffic for the website, although he admits that he was thrilled watching the site go from 15,000 to 440,000 unique visitors in an hour. “I did it almost to prove to myself that I had it in me, to make something go viral at 4:30 in the morning before the world wakes up.”
“After our second hoax I remember a reporter telling me, ‘Well it looks like you’ve fooled us twice. Won’t get away with this nonsense again,” says Resig.
Resig says he also has another media announcement planned for 10am PDT Thursday.
And what’s next for Porterfield? “You’ll see in the coming days she’s as smart as she is sexy,” quips Resig.
Stay tuned…