I’ve mentioned advertising which co-ops something else,  such as a police recruitment campaign which co-ops the techniques of illegal (thus, anti-police) graffiti art. Co-optation is stealing the techniques from another in spite of philosophical differences.

And then there are ads which go far beyond the mere stealing of techniques and practices of another group and steal much more (such as your body) or, in this following case, your expectations.

This took place at a right-wing extremest rock festival in Germany.  At the festival, t-shirts — with right-wing flags and skulls on them — were given away for free.

However, after the t-shirts were washed the skulls and flags faded and a message appeared asking the owner to break with right-wing extremism.  link

My rusty German translation: “what your t-shirt did, you can do also.”

I guess you could call stealth advertising hoaxes, but in a way,  that’s just like calling magicians hoaxers.  Magicians and stealth advertisers are doing something with so much style and creativity that it would be unfair to them to call them hoaxers.  What they’re doing is  more than just telling a lie which will soon be exposed.  Even after the lie is exposed you are still amazed.