David Merrick’s classic ad for the 1961 Broadway musical SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING, shown above.
Faced with lukewarm reviews, Merrick devised an elaborate stunt to bring it publicity. He found seven people who happened to have the same names as seven well-known theater critics.
He then invited these seven people to a free performance of the play and afterwards wined and dined them until they agreed to let him use their names in the ad. It was entirely truthful. Richard Watts really did say that the play was "a knockout from start to finish." However, the theater critic Richard Watts had never said those words.
Merrick later confessed that he had wanted to pull off this stunt for many years. But he couldn't find a person with the same name as the famous critic Brooks Atkinson of the Times. When Atkinson retired in 1961, Merrick seized his opportunity
H/T: Casey Childs
