MARSUPIAL ATTACKS! AN ANATOMY OF A HOAX

Back in 1996 Britain was reportedly facing invasion by an Australian marsupial with a large snout and a reputation for destroying crops – but the whole thing was a PR stunt for a new PlayStation game. DR MIKE BENBOUGH-JACKSON provides a brief history of the great bandicoot scare.

From the tail end of 1996 to early 1997, a speedy, nervous, omnivorous marsupial with a prominent snout caused a stir in Britain. Bandicoots had breached the island fortress and joined the by now ubiquitous grey squirrel and other less noticeable arrivals like the Chinese mitten crab. There is an important difference, however, between the bandicoot and the other intruders. To paraphrase Jean Baudrillard: the bandicoot invasion did not take place. By March 1997, Fortean Times concluded that the bandicoot invasion was probably a commercially inspired hoax perpetuated by Sony to put the marsupial in the mind of the public just before the release of the PlayStation game Crash Bandicoot. 1 Classified adverts placed in the press by Douglas Dooley, the head of the Bandicoot Research Society (BRS) asked people…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 455

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