David Manning (sometimes "Dave") was a pseudonym used by a marketing executive around July 2000 to give consistently good reviews for releases from

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

subsidiary

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. Several fictional review quotes attributed to "David Manning" were used in the promotion of medieval action/drama '' A Knight's Tale'' (describing

Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, he moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film care ...

as "this year's hottest new star!") and

Rob Schneider Robert Michael Schneider ( ; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and comedian. He rose to prominence as a cast member on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' (1990–1994), where he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Following ...

's comedy ''

The Animal ''The Animal'' is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Luke Greenfield, written by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider from a story conceived by Brady. It stars Schneider in the lead role, alongside Colleen Haskell, John C. McGinley, Guy Torry, an ...

'' ("Another winner!"), the latter of which generally received poor reviews by real critics. The story emerged in mid-2001 in connection with the film '' The Patriot''.

Background

The usage of quotations in advertisement is an important part of

film promotion Film promotion is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry, and usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. Sometimes this is called the press junket or film junket. Film promotion generally include ...

. Film studios use quotations of reviews from film critics to demonstrate to the general public that the movie is worth their money and time. However, studios are given a lot of leeway on how quotations are represented. While advertisement campaigns must be approved by the

Motion Picture Association The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

, the MPA does not check quotations on advertisements for their accuracy. Because of this, studios may shorten quotes or remove context from them, both to keep things brief and to put as much positive

spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

as possible. In a 1999 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' article about the role critics play in movie advertising,

DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film studio and Film distribution, distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action a ...

marketing executive Terry Press remarked, "We are a

sound bite A sound bite or soundbite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio, often used to promote or exemplify the full-length piece. In the context of journalism, a sound bite is characterized by a short phrase or sentence ...

culture ..You just take the sound bite. If they didn't say it exactly the way you want, you just take the part of what they said that you do want ..and if they don't say what you want, you just make it up yourself anyway."

Details

Manning was named after a friend of Matthew Cramer, the Sony marketing executive responsible for the insertions. Manning was credited to ''

The Ridgefield Press ''The Ridgefield Press'' is an American weekly newspaper published each Thursday for Ridgefield, Connecticut. The newspaper was established in 1875, and has a paid circulation of about 4,753 copies. It is currently owned by Hearst Media, whic ...

'', a small weekly newspaper from

Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is an affluent New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains and on the New York state border, Ridgefield had a population o ...

that actually published film reviews written by the father-and-son team of Mark and Jonathan Schumann. During an investigation into Manning's quotes, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' reporter John Horn discovered that the newspaper had never heard of him. The story emerged in mid-2001, around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise the

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...

film '' The Patriot''. These occurrences, in tandem, raised questions and controversy about ethics in

practices. On June 10, 2001, on an episode of '' Le Show'', host Harry Shearer conducted an in-studio interview with David Manning. The voice of Manning was provided by a computer voice synthesizer. On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw ''

Hollow Man ''Hollow Man'' is a 2000 science fiction horror thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Andrew W. Marlowe, and starring Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg Grunberg, Joey Slotnick, Mary Randle, and Will ...

'', ''

'', '' The Patriot'', '' A Knight's Tale'', or '' Vertical Limit'' in American theaters as a result of Manning's reviews.

References

External links

David Manning entry
from the

Museum of Hoaxes The Museum of Hoaxes is a website created by Alex Boese in 1997 in San Diego, California, as a resource for reporting and discussing hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false a ...

MetaCritic and RottenTomato rankings for the movies reviewed by Manning

''Rezec v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.''
No. 160586 (Cal. App. Jan. 27, 2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, David 2000 hoaxes 2000 in American cinema Advertising and marketing controversies in film Nonexistent people used in hoaxes Hoaxes in the United States Journalistic hoaxes Columbia Pictures 21st-century pseudonymous writers Film advertising material