John
09-02-2009, 08:35 AM
German TV company RTL posted the clip on YouTube for one day and it received 880,000 hits. It has since removed the video from the website.
"We wanted to show how easily users can be manipulated on the internet with hoax videos," RTL spokeswoman Heike Schultz said.
"Therefore, we created this video of Michael Jackson being alive, even though everybody knows by now that he is dead - and the response was breathtaking."
The video, posted under an "anonymous source", showed a coroner's van entering what appeared to be an underground car park.
A man, who had the same build and hair as Jackson, was escorted from the vehicle and through a doorway.
Ms Schultz said: "Unfortunately, many people believed it was true.
"Even though we tried to create the video in a way that every normal user can see right away that it is a fake."
She said the video was shot near Cologne in Germany and "definitely not in the US".
Some Jackson fans have complained to RTL for using their idol's death as part of an experiment.
Ms Schultz said in response: "We didn't want to dishonour Michael Jackson, but we needed a strong name to get this experiment going.
"Had we used Britney Spears, then the fans of Britney would have complained."
Meanwhile, Jackson's death certificate has been amended to reflect his cause of death as a homicide, specifying "injection by another" as the fatal injury.
"We wanted to show how easily users can be manipulated on the internet with hoax videos," RTL spokeswoman Heike Schultz said.
"Therefore, we created this video of Michael Jackson being alive, even though everybody knows by now that he is dead - and the response was breathtaking."
The video, posted under an "anonymous source", showed a coroner's van entering what appeared to be an underground car park.
A man, who had the same build and hair as Jackson, was escorted from the vehicle and through a doorway.
Ms Schultz said: "Unfortunately, many people believed it was true.
"Even though we tried to create the video in a way that every normal user can see right away that it is a fake."
She said the video was shot near Cologne in Germany and "definitely not in the US".
Some Jackson fans have complained to RTL for using their idol's death as part of an experiment.
Ms Schultz said in response: "We didn't want to dishonour Michael Jackson, but we needed a strong name to get this experiment going.
"Had we used Britney Spears, then the fans of Britney would have complained."
Meanwhile, Jackson's death certificate has been amended to reflect his cause of death as a homicide, specifying "injection by another" as the fatal injury.