Customer demand for fake but funny news billboards at Horsham's Candy Box, says owner

John O'Sullivan's fake news billboards outside his news and sweet shop in Horsham, West Sussex have drawn quite a bit of attention in recent weeks, most recently on BBC Radio 4's The Now Show.

[Audio here until July 31]

"I can't quite believe the attention it has caused," he tells Journalism.co.uk. It all began three months ago, he says, when someone meddled with the authentic West Sussex County Times ad board outside his establishment, the Candy Box.

"Someone kept changing the words on the boards and to this day nobody knows who did it," says O'Sullivan.

"One was considered too naughty and they [the newspaper] removed the board. So I decided to do my own: hence The West Sussex Candy Times."

And headlines such as 'Crawley Girl Gives Birth to Pitbull' and 'Local Youths Abduct UFO' were born - some examples can be seen on the Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog.

Unfortunately for O'Sullivan, as reported by the Brighton Argus in early July, the council didn't see the funny side, and asked him to remove one of his boards.

O'Sullivan's response to the authorities' reaction? A new sign: 'Candy Box Owner Threatened with Arrest over Funny Boards'.

According to the BBC, the Sussex Police denied that O'Sullivan had been threatened with arrest and said that an officer had a 'friendly conversation' with him. The local council, however, confirmed to the BBC that it had asked him to take one particular sign down, after receiving complaints.

He remains undeterred and the boards continue, now incorporating customer suggestions: on the day we speak, O'Sullivan is running 'Boy Scout Arrested for Eating Brownie Shock.'

"I have had nothing but compliments about the boards. Everyone is behind me: they find them funny and it has made the council and the police look daft," he tells Journalism.co.uk..

"I enjoy making people laugh and that's why I do it. People do come in and suggest ideas for boards, and recently I held a competition on Facebook for some and I printed them and put them outside.

"People want me to continue and the council are a bit stuffed really. The council are here to serve us not dictate us. If I wanted a dictator I'd go and live with Mugabe."

The latest of O'Sullivan's stunts are a couple of YouTube videos, which can be watched on the Editors' Blog, in which he draws inspiration from Anthony Hopkins' advertisements for Sky HD, to reflect on the bitter, but mainly sweet, billboard tale.

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