‘Historically Hardcore’ Smithsonian ads are fake, sadly

What appeared to be the launch of a highly modern promotional campaign by the Smithsonian -- surely its first involving 50 Cent, or pairing Ozzy Osbourne with Andrew Jackson -- was widely cheered online, bringing new-generation appeal to an old-world institution. Sadly, though, the Fiddy fun didn't come from the museum.

The posters, which were purportedly part of a campaign titled "Historically Hardcore," were revealed to be the work of art director Jenny Burrows and copywriter Matt Kappler, created as an art school portfolio project.

Burrows posted on her blog that she contacted the Smithsonian once the ads went viral, just to, in her words, "cover my ass." Museum officials, she wrote, were "less than pleased about the attention the posters were getting" and demanded that she remove the Smithsonian logo from the images on her site. She complied, but of course the originals, like the one we've embedded on the right, have already made their social media mark.

This is precisely what Burrows explained she'd been aiming for with the project, to "reach high school and college students, to try to engage them in a subject that many of them find extremely boring." She, if not the Smithsonian, seems to have found success: DCist reports that numerous history teachers have expressed a desire to purchase the posters for their classrooms.

In response, Burrows, who said that before this project "the only people who had seen my portfolio were my parents, my teachers...and anyone whom I had begged to give me a job when I graduated in 2009," is offering high-resolution versions (logo-removed, of course) for free download.