We’ve been doing this little game for more than thirty years. We can’t get to the archives right now because of the construction of the second alternative recumbent-only bike lane, but as far as we can tell, what happened last month has only happened once before: we made a mistake.
Last month’s Fake Ad, for Mich Again Great Lakes water, was supposed to include a line at the top of the photo that said, “Summer’s hot.” Together with the line at the bottom, “We’ll keep you cool,” the words spelled out the last name of last month’s winner, “Shotwell.”
Somehow, the line at the top didn’t make it into the final version of the ad. We’re still working on a way to blame AI for the mistake (which is tough, because the Observer has a strict no-AI policy), but the fact is we messed up. Again. Twice in more than thirty years. We apologize, especially because it was painful to watch so many Fake Adders twisting themselves into impossibly difficult mental gymnastics to figure out how the “shot” part of Shotwell was in the ad.
People guessed it was because the picture was a snapSHOT or because we used to get our water from a SHOT well. Rae Ruskin even posits, “The clue, Shotwell, is in the following: Fresh for sh; to reversed for ot, also 1st and last letters of overnight; We’ll for well. Thank you for your imagination!” No, Rae. Thank you.
Our winner, chosen from the 131 people who somehow still found the ad, was Nancy Taylor. She’s taking her gift certificate to Ayse’s Cafe.