The entire drama of the 10-tonne, 30-foot high Big Mango structure going missing from Queensland, Australia, was nothing but a publicity gimmick by a restaurant chain.
Big Mango, the tourist attraction in Bowen town of Queensland was 'stolen' Monday by fast-food joint Nando's, the company said, claiming responsibility. "The disappearance of Bowen's Big Mango has generated quite a lot of attention over the last day or so... and we confess... Nando's was behind moving the three storey high, ten tonne tourist attraction," a statement on the company's website read. "Nando's would like to thank the people of Bowen for being good sports about us 'borrowing' their beautiful mango. "
The statue was first found missing by a Bowen Tourist Information employee who informed about the disappearance to Paul McLaughlin, chairman of Bowen Tourism. He also said that CCTV footage showed at least 6 people in a large crane going north toward the Big Mango. "No one in their right mind considered for a second that someone would take a giant three-storey-high, 10-tonne Mango. It's not like it's something that can be easily hidden," he told The Australian. And here he was of course was playing to a plan.
Bowen put the Big Mango on display in 2002 to signify the 'Kensington Pride' mango grown in the town that has made Bowen the mango capital of Australia. However, it seems that the tourist spot fell prey to the publicity stunt of the restaurant trying to attract customers. And the trick worked. The news was reported nationwide and across the world.
But, questions were raised after the tourism department did not lodge any complaint with the police. Tuesday morning it seemed that the mystery of the Big Mango's disappearance was solved. Bob Russell, a local, phoned ABC Radio and said that he stumbled across the 10-meter mango on a friend's property. He also said that the statue was lying on its side on tractor tyres and was partly covered with a cloth and tree branches. "Me mate and that were out there yesterday and she said to me 'what's that up in the scrub' and I said 'it looks like the bloody big mango,' anyway when we went out sure enough it was gone," he told the radio, reports the ABC. "It's a pretty hard thing to hide." This was later clarified by Nando's saying that the Big Mango was with them.
Hoaxes have been used as public relations stunts by several companies. This January, crop circles discovered at a field in California fetched a lot of media and public attention speculating that it was done by aliens. But it was later revealed that the computer graphics company NVIDIA made those crop circles to focus attention on their latest mobile processor, reports CNN.
Last December, a video that showed an 'alien jellyfish' swimming in a harbour in Bristol, the United Kingdom, puzzled experts. But again, it was nothing but a marketing gimmick for a new show 'The Happenings' on Watch channel.
Some people find such hoaxes a mean way of getting public attention, but some say it is pure fun. In Big Mango's case, people mostly commented on Bowne's Big Mango Facebook page saying that the stunt was amusing and that it was a good way of attracting traffic to Bowen to help boost its tourism.
