The Guardian's Gordon Brown April fool goes viral

It began as an April fool, a newspaper tradition that sought to amuse Guardian readers. But the gag, which "revealed" Labour's new election poster featuring a mean-looking Gordon Brown and the slogan "Step Outside Posh Boy" soon turned into an internet sensation and a top topic on Twitter . By lunchtime thousands had clicked through to the Guardian's website from Twitter to see the poster. One tweeted: "I totally fell for the Step Outside Posh Boy campaign today … so plausible." Soon the Twitterati created variations on the "campaign" poster on the website Flickr . Alongside a glowering picture of Brown one slogan read: "Did You Spill My Pint", while another said: "Vote Labour. Or I'll wreck your hoose". The story took a further turn when Labour big hitter John Prescott , entered the debate calling on the Guardian to take the gag further to produce a T-shirt with the fake campaign poster. "Would anyone be interested in buying a Step Outside Posh Boy T shirt? Got a feeling they'd be very popular!", he tweeted, calling on followers to bombard Guardian deputy editor Ian Katz with emails. Not a newspaper to disappoint, it was announced that 100 SOPB T-shirts could be won in this Saturday's Guardian.