Skullphone's Clear Channel billboards not hax0r3d, actually pa1d for
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Mar 26th 2008 2:54PM
posted Mar 26th 2008 2:54PM
[Thanks, Dakota]
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disappointing.
i dont think its that disappointing. in fact, i dont believe it!
think about it, its just like the government, they no longer tell people that they didnt see aliens, just that it wasnt aliens but something else.
its all about the misdirection.
clear channel is probably just saying that he really paid for it so they dont look like morons who couldnt secure their shizz from h4x0r5
Are you kidding? How is that dissappointing?
This guy got WAY more advertising than he paid the 1 day fee for. It was viewed as a publicity stunt and posted on most major tech sites!
Kudos to this guy, even if he wasn't selling a damn thing.
Correction: Looks like they do sell completely random items.
Great advertising scheme. It definitely was a success.
@ Teetdogs: "are your just dumb?"
The irony is killing me.
@zak: "The irony is killing me."
...says the guy replying in the wrong thread.
Disappointing indeed. There goes my 2girls1cup dream =[
:P *see other article*
it just appears that he wanted to get the brand out there, and it worked.... though in trying to say "oh look I hacked them" and then to find out it was paid advertising, must have cost a fortune.
look out for skull hoodies etc coming to a store near you....
I don't know. In one way it is disappointing. Here I am thinking it's something akin to Banksy but with modern tools, when really it's an advertisement. It's still cool, but it would have been SO much cooler if it had been one man hacking the system, making modern-day graffiti on a digital sign. It would have been l33t x's3 but instead I just find it to be slightly intelligent and innovative.
TIME TO TAR AND FEATHER
no way
ya wai!
where do i buy a skullphone.
@Matt: Maybe: http://shopskullphone.com/Scripts/
but can it play doom?
Is that the only comment you know how to make. Or do you actually think it's funny? Or are your just dumb?
My guess is number 3
I choose 4
Yeah, what up man? are YOUR just dumb? Do you not know how to make grammatics and spell and stuff?
I have failed the interweb.
I am the walrus.
I am going to put m ram in your C Drive.
I'd hit it.
Anyone who bought his/her merchandise due to this ad should return or cancel their order.
Also, I realize that this is a blog and not a newspaper, but linking to another blog's article based on "a source" with no affiliation is not good journalism. Attempting to contact Clear Channel and Skullphone would be a positive step.
Cudos to doom!
On a side note, 7up sucks. I am drinking it now, it tastes like nothing. Choose sprite instead
sprite is sugary rubbish. juice + sparkling water ftw
yeah really...where'd you learn how to read? video games? "All your Doom are belong to us!"
That just killed his street cred :P
I wonder how much he had to pay Clear Channel to kill his own cred. You know CC wouldn't go along unless it was a butt-load of cash.
Unless Mills is right and it's disinformation.
...and I bought stocks with that tip!
this is as bad as avril lavigne being "punk".
common misconception, Avril is a punk, but she is not punk.
and a hot non-punk
Tasty
gimme a slice
Yeah... that makes me sad. Hell, i have a huge mohawk and listen to punk, and i STILL don't consider myself punk, because, well, i'm not. I like the music, and i have the hair, but there's a lot more to being punk than that, and Avril doesn't have any of it! :(
-Taylor
I somewhat suspected as much. The CC WAN (although large) is fairly secure. I don't even believe they have the billboard network directly connected to the WAN.
I never thought I'd say this but I can't trust Skullphone anymore... sniff
for shame
My point from the previous story remains valid.
BEST HACK EVER = Clear Channel billboards hacked to display Sirius and XM logos.
Sadly, it will probably never see the light of day.
You could try paying to get it up there, but I have a feeling they wouldn't let you.
what was the motivation for paying for it? I'm curious if this might not have been a real hack that's being covered up to inhibit other people from attempting the same thing.
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4 - Acerguy is a totally useless twat who laughs at his own jokes thinking they're funny.
I would have to choose number 4 too.
phail
Mr. Block,
Perhaps I could entice you to investigate a little further and see if we can get an estimate on how much it cost SkullPhone(y) for this backfiring PR-move?
I'm just dying to know how much it cost to try and artificially inflate market perception. There's a clever Mastercard parody that ends with "Getting busted and Plastered all over Engadget: Priceless"
~A
hey they got some publicity... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
damn rich gangsters. >_
What the...? What's with the disappointment?!?! I think it's a brilliant joke hehehe. He DID get his graffiti on those panels. And all of us talking about it.
Come on, the guy's a street artist, NOT a hax0r. If he were trying to pass off as one I'd agree that this prank wouldn't do much good for his credibility, but as it is... I'm thinking GTA IV-style invading enemy gang turf with my tags on every screen visible from the street [^_^]
you have to realize that clear channel could just be using some quick action PR to try and stop an on onslaught of people trying to hack their billboards now.
i mean if a security breach was pointed out in one of your products to the entire internet, wouldn't you go run some damage control?
until the validity of this "source" can prove anything, i wouldn't take this as more than a PR move.
Umm... Am I the only one who thought of this or do you think that ClearChannel is just saying they paid for it so every thinks they didn't get hacked? Hmmm...
No... you're not the only one. Some 20 people ahead of you already said the same thing. Thanks for showing up late to the party...
Oh sorry, Should refresh the page before I comment. Had this opened in my last tab of my RSS reader. Sorry :)
grats
phOWNED!!!!111onehundredeleven!!11one
I love how you're calling this guy is a "buster" yet he completely fooled you, a purported journalist, as to the real truth. What exactly does that make you?
a blogger maybe...
Lying about how you do something and then getting caught isn't "fooling" anyone - it's not getting caught in your lie when you make it. It still caught up with him, and it took less than 24hrs.
Where the hell does an 18 year old get enough scratch to buy city-wide billboards for a day? Daddy? The Skull Phone is his logo. He's advertising a brand, just like anyone else on there.
i knew it.
Did anybody else read that last line, and hear David Caruso saying them? And then of course the obligatory, "YYYEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
I Lol'd hard. Thanks for making my day :D
who the fuck is skullcandy and what the fuck do they do? should i even care?
don't they make cheap "hi-fi" headphones?
why the fuck should we care whether you care? do you think saying "fuck" 50 times per day on engadget makes you look all badass? stay in school or learn some anger management, troll.
skullphone != skullcandy?
What a bummer
I too am dissappointed to find this a bust... But kudos to Engadget for the refrence to an ever famous George Dubya quote.
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
we suspected it wasn;t a hack BUT u never can tell whether someone has been crazy with Photoshop either. Our take on it http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/1364
Lots of money and a shitty logo doth not an artist make!
I whipped up my own "art" in response to this schlemiel.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5230/skullphoneyet3.png
@sonicwind: and of course, the fucking grammar/spelling nazi has to swoop and and make sure he points out a very tiny typo. Good job! I'm so happy that you are out here patrolling the internet making sure everything is spelled correctly. I can sleep better at night now.
I love the subtle Bush reference, Josh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A
That stinks, I thought he actually hacked them.
I'm so making this into a t-shirt fromt his image and not giving him anything. POSER!
Did this Skull guy actually tell people it was a hack, or did people just assume it was?
/honest question
Uhm I went to his website, and I realized he was a public 'multimedia' artist, and I put 2 and 2 together before this news came out. I knew it was not hacked, but just ran through the system like an ADVERT. As long as it's not offensive, most "advertising" channels won't care what you do. Why do you think some of the ads on tv now seem so cryptic. Like "Now What?" or the mini cooper ads.
Won't get fooled again? Every day there is story about how yesterdays story was wrong.
Could you please provide examples of the incorrect stories year-over-year -- I assume you'll have a minimum of 365 posts in that period based on your comment. Also, since we sometimes run hundreds of stories a day, could you also demonstrate the ratio of "correct" versus "incorrect" articles? Looking forward to those figures.
I don't get paid to be your editor, Josh. And I am not picking on you personally. It is a bit disturbing though how many times the major tech blogs just plain get it wrong. Then the next day or the next week they put up the "whoops, my bad" post. You guys are in the big time now, people expect better accuracy.
I wonder if it would still be considered a hack if they hacked a computer to get the money they used to pay for the add, and never claimed the street cred for the stolen money, only the billboard prank.
amazing last line
Man, I was totally loving this story when I thought it was hacked.
Now it's just insanely lame.
dudes, check this out: http://fffff.at/major-times-square-hack
oh snap!
"That Skullphone billboard hack we saw yesterday had everyone at Engadget HQ pretty impressed with the corporate-pranking hijinks."
So who exactly is the corporate entity pranked by these hijinks? Do you own a mirror?
This is excactly what I was thinking when i read the first post. This has happened before couple of time in the netherlands. Dutch newswebsite/forum Geenstijl.nl did this last year, tricking people in hacking the commercialboards in the stadium during a soccer match. Also another guy made a video about hacking the roadsignal boards on the highway.
Looks like we all got worked...I went from pretty impressed, to mildly depressed. Remind me to never buy a SkullPhone unless of course it has cool skulls and crossbones on the GUI...iSkull?
That would be so RAD! Pfffft.
He is trying to go the Shepard Ferry route (Andre The Giant has a possee). He has an online store that sells his shwag. He is branding his own line. Clothing, x-mas ornaments, bags, skateboards. It is just a very "cool" company.
Max Cornelisse is Koning!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrXkmP_3kBs
There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once -- shame on -- shame on you. You fool me, you can't get fooled again.