Last month’s Fake Ad referred to the Fifth Forum theater, a real place that was once a downtown home for art movies; its former building is now the Fifth Quarter nightclub. “The fake ad for August is at the top of page 68,” wrote Andy Yagle. “The Fifth Forum? As a description of a sundae on the menu at the late Miller’s Ice Cream parlor put it, ‘If you can remember this, it’s later than you think.'”
In all, we received eighty-five entries correctly identifying the August ad, which proved to be a difficult quest for some. Nick Roumel wrote, “I scoured the magazine three times. I looked at the full page ads, business card ads, classifieds, and even the real estate ads. I looked up various web sites and called numbers to verify that many businesses were real. I was this close to writing to say that you must have forgotten it this month, when I gave one more look. And found it. How could I miss W.E.B. DuBois? How could I miss the long gone Fifth Forum, and ‘Ticketmister’? Good job. I think because there was nothing whimsical about the ad–your usual MO–I overlooked it.”
Our winner was Kathy Erwin, who is taking her gift certificate to Elements Therapeutic Massage. For a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to any legitimate advertiser in the September Observer, identify the phony ad and follow the instructions on p. 87. The deadline for entries is September 10.
