It’s the dream of many marketing executives to go viral but Liberal Party HQ is wondering if its new attack ad accusing Labor of launching a “war” on the economy might be going viral for all the wrong reasons.

Screened yesterday, the Liberal Party ad features what appears to be an ordinary tradie sitting on a building site talking to the camera.

Internet users quickly began to dissect some of the incongruities in the ad and soon the hashtag #faketradie was born.

It appears to be the little things that brought them undone:

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Also, why is his saw-stool set up in a lane outside the fencing? And who has a ceramic cup on a building site? pic.twitter.com/pZEs7TPk0T — Bill (@Billablog) June 19, 2016

Like really little:

Ha, how many takes? Grip on the cup changes at the cut at 0.10 #faketradie pic.twitter.com/2hWT9s7BUp — Mike Sampson (@mfsampson) June 19, 2016

And then of course you have the (rather unkind) memes:

ICYMI #faketradie is on a world tour! pic.twitter.com/QHAFbloWUf — Fake Richard Tuffin (@RichardTuffin) June 19, 2016

Even the Australian Manufacturers and Workers Union was having a go:

he just wants a fair go dinki di VB cricket shannon noll BBQ crack at negatively gearing his 5th home #faketradie pic.twitter.com/vHRTRlOEkS — The AMWU (@theamwu) June 19, 2016

Dr Mumbo was also particularly amused that the folks at Buzzfeed also spotted that “fake tradie” also appears to be wearing a $7000 Tiffany man’s watch.

Is the Liberal party tradie wearing a $7,000 watch? https://t.co/D51JMoTqQI pic.twitter.com/Ercyo5dbP4 — Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) June 20, 2016

Which led to tweets like this:

But of course the real mystery is the identity of the ‘fake tradie’. Labor creative strategist Dee Madigan tweeted that surely the Liberals wouldn’t be silly enough to hire an actor:

I bet he’s a real person b/c a) no actor is that bad b) Libs not silly enough to use an actor. But I bet he’s no ordinary tradie. #Faketradie — DeeMadigan (@deemadigan) June 19, 2016

But soon websites Buzzfeed were questioning whether the Libs had hired actor Andrew MacRae to front the ad:

Such was the furore that Macrae was forced to come out and tweet that it wasn’t him:

Dear all,

It’s not me. I’m not in the ad. I didn’t voice the ad. I had nothing to do with the ad. #faketradie — Andrew MacRae (@MedinaVoice) June 20, 2016

The latest update has the Government insisting that “fake tradie” is real.

“We are very pleased that people are talking about this ad which highlights the risks of Bill Shorten’s war on business,” said a Liberal spokesman.“The tradie is real, unlike Mr Shorten’s claims about Medicare.”

Meanwhile the CFMEU has come out to insist he is not a member of their union.

The CFMEU would like to categorically state that @faketradie is NOT a member of our union. #faketradie #auspol pic.twitter.com/jvMrDjjOKi — John Setka (@CFMEUJohnSetka) June 20, 2016

So for the moment it appears that fake tradie may be real – or at least not a union member – but what about the posh watch?

Update June 21 9am – A caller to Triple J’s Mat and Alex breakfast show this morning claimed to have been on the site when the ad was filmed.

Apparently the tradie in question was a boiler maker who was brought in by the Liberal Party to the building site a couple of weeks ago, complete with props including the saw horse, but was not working on the site himself.

Update 10am – Fake tradie has been reveal. Daily Mail Australia journalist Daniel Piotrowski found the “fake tradie”, who is in fact 50-year-old Andrew MacRae who lives in a modest home in Lane Cove.

MacRae is in fact a tradie who even provided his NSW government contractor’s licence to prove the point.

Click here to read the Daily Mail story.