The Megasecret MOLE

No weapons system has been more heavily guarded than the MOLE (Molecular Orbiting Low-Level Explorer). First hint of its existence came last spring when a Washington-datelined story in Electronic News reported that the Pentagon "is becoming heavily committed" to a radically new weapons system, added: "The MOLE should put an end to war. No location on earth will be secure from the MOLE." Later stories reported that 1) a special new agency (Subterranean Exploration Agency--SEA > had been set up to handle the new weapon and 2) the prime contract had been awarded to Accuracy Inc. of Waltham, Mass. Accuracy Inc., said the reports, was letting subcontracts for the MOLE's propulsion system ("an atomic engine energized by the molecular disintegration of whatever element it traverses") and its molizing system (a special reverse cone which pulls the dirt in after the missile so that its path cannot be tracked from the air). On Aug. 4, the MOLE was successfully fired from its sinking site in Death Valley. It went into orbit at "depths variously reported as from a few inches to 60,000 ft." Two weeks later a senatorial committee clamped on the MOLE the megasecret classification of DBR (Destroy Before Reading).

Last week Andrew Monahan, marketing consultant for Accuracy Inc.. stood up before a Boston meeting of the American Marketing Association and told the whole story: the MOLE was an elaborate hoax. Accuracy Inc. is a small firm that manufactures precision potentiometers--small electrical measuring devices (known in the trade as pots) that are used in electronic systems. Such firms have an advertising problem. Since their products are used chiefly in highly classified projects, they can do little public boasting. Since their customers are only a handful of procurement officers in the Pentagon or a few specialized firms, money spent on ordinary advertising is largely wasted. So Monahan seized on the MOLE as a means of spreading the name of Accuracy Inc. throughout the electronics industry. "Oddly enough," he says, "people believed it. It has never ceased to amaze us that people would believe this fantastic story."

But believe it they did. Among letters from hep engineers who realized that MOLE was a gag were many serious letters seeking information, asking for subcontracts, or jobs on Project MOLE. Eager enthusiasts called by phone. "They wouldn't let us explain what was going on," says Monahan helplessly. "They'd make sure they'd got the right company, -and then go into their sales pitch." One company insisted on being hired to build the launching pad (or sinking site). "One thing it proves," says Monahan, "is that engineers can be awfully gullible. One reason we did this was to lampoon the engineers. I don't think anybody can be more pompous than the engineers who are saving mankind."

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