A satirical article about Marlboro getting into the legalized marijuana fray with its own "weed cigarette" is fooling many on the Internet.
The online publication Abril Uno, which translates to "April One" in English, published a story last week that said the Marlboro's manufacturer, Phillip Morris USA, introduced a marijuana cigarette called Marlboro M. The story said it would be available in Colorado and Washington state.
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The article claimed Phillip Morris would advertise for it during the Super Bowl next year, as Phillip Morris stock shares "hit an all-time high on the marijuana news and shot up to $998.00 from $83.03 just a few hours after the announcement went public."
Some of the tags listed under the story include the words fake news, fictional news and satire. But that wasn't enough to keep users on sites like Twitter from picking up the ball and running with it.
The Epoch Times was one of several outlets that busted the fake story on Friday.
"Abril Uno uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures or companies are being satirized, parodied or spoofed," Epoch Times reported. "'Any resemblance to the truth, actual events, actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and is intended purely as a satire, parody or spoof,' reads a disclaimer at the bottom of the site."
New York Daily News columnist Richard Cohen, in an opinion piece titled "Of marijuana and Marlboro man," on Jan. 20 compared the news surrounding legalization of marijuana to that of cigarette smoking.
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