Michael Jackson Hoax Video Was Online Experiment

Michael Jackson’s death was the subject of a fake video that was meant to prove how easy it is to create a massive online buzz.

Michael Jackson died June 25, but a fake video showing Jackson still alive tested exactly how much fans are willing to believe.

The video, which shows Jackson leaving a coroner’s van, was produced by German broadcaster RTL in Cologne, Germany, for its magazine Explosiv. Jackson’s face isn’t clearly seen, and the footage was intended to look fake, RTL spokeswoman Heike Schultz said. RTL posted the video to YouTube for a single day, and received 880,000 hits while generating a fair deal of rumors and speculation.

“We wanted to show how easily users can be manipulated on the Internet with hoax videos,” she told the Associated Press. “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.”

During his life, ardent fans and the public at large followed closely Jackson’s changing appearance. His cosmetic surgery adventures began in the mid-1980s, though Jackson denied most of them. Dr. Wallace Goodstein, a Los Angeles surgeon who belonged to the same practice as the doctor he claims was Jackson’s plastic surgeon, said that at one point, Jackson had a dozen cosmetic surgeries over two years.

Goodstein said he witnessed Jackson’s rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, cheek implants and chin alteration. Jackson’s long surgical history took a toll on the pop star in the mid-’90s with almost irreparable cartilage loss to his nose. However, not long before he died, Jackson enlisted dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein to rebuild his nose by injecting it with hyaluronic fillers.

Jackson also suffered from a rare condition called vitiligo that caused uneven skin tones. He finally found a solution through Klein, who used creams to even out the color. Unfortunately, the new color appeared very pale, making Jackson look even more bizarre.

Sadly, cosmetic surgery played such a significant role in Jackson’s life and image that his appearance in many ways overshadows the memory of his musical genius. Rather than enhance his features, the excessive operations distorted his face and only fed what many say was an obsession with his physiognomy. Still, as the RTL hoax video shows, fans are still on the look-out for the King of Pop, and hold him close to their heart, despite his mystifying visage.