

CRYSTAL BRIDGES PUNKED: A website that appears to be related to the Crystal Bridges Museum, but clearly isn’t, is drawing attention around the web.

Seen this? High-tech pranksters have used the good name of Crystal Bridges, the Alice Walton-backed museum in Bentonville, to draw attention to a union protest of Walmart employment practices in a Black Friday event that has drawn a court effort by the retailer to shut it down.

At the link crystalbridgesfoundation.org, you’ll find a news release (partially shown above), which is clearly a putup job ( I’m reasonably sure the website is a creation of pranksters with no connection to Crystal Bridges, though it picks up standard features and links from the real Crystal Bridges website and likely will be targeted soon for infringing on that trade dress):

The website was created Nov. 19 and registered by a web hosting company, according to a quick search. Said Museum spokeswoman Dianne Carroll:


It is indeed erroneous—and we appreciate our thorough reporters who vet something like this before reporting. We have been alerted about the information; the website “crystalbridgesfoundation.org” and all related content have not been generated by Crystal Bridges, and all information contained in the press release is false. Crystal Bridges will be open Friday, Nov. 23, from 11 am to 9 pm., and we welcome all to come explore the Museum galleries, grounds and additional offerings. The official Crystal Bridges web site, with accurate information, is CrystalBridges.org We’re also investigating next steps.

Following is the news release ginned up by the satire site. In case it should disappear, it’s shown in full. It reflects a bit of Onion-worthy sophistication and fine art knowledge in the course of injecting the needle: