Since 2008, people around the world insisted the same man appeared in their dreams, and a website collected the sightings. Then an Italian marketer admitted he drew the face from a photo of his own father.
The story claimed a New York patient sketched a stranger from her dreams in 2006, and that thousands of people worldwide then recognized him.
A walkthrough of the legend as it spread: the sketch, the website, and the growing list of people who swore they had met him in sleep.
The timeline of the viral phenomenon and the clues that something about its uncanny, worldwide reach did not add up.
How the 'Ever Dream This Man?' site was traced back through its hosting to a guerrilla marketing agency.
Unpacking why a generic, symmetrical face is so easy to 'recognize' in a half-remembered dream.
An Italian retrospective on Andrea Natella, who confessed the entire phenomenon was guerrilla marketing built on a photo of his father as a young man.