US ELECTROPOP DUO Yacht has apologised over a publicity hoax in which the artists said they had made a sex tape that was stolen.
The one-man-one-woman duo, which has a niche following in indie rock circles, on Monday said that a “morally abject” person had stolen the sex tape.
Yacht soon said that the duo would sell the tape on its own, revealing the incident to be a hoax and generating heated criticism online.
The Portland-born, Los Angeles-based artists apologised last night, saying they were “ashamed” at the “egregious mistake.”
“While there is inherent deception in pulling a hoax, it was never our intention to mock or make light of anyone who has been a victim of a privacy violation like the one we mentioned,” Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans wrote on Facebook.
This was a lazy starting point for what we wanted to be a much more fun story about the expectations of a sex tape and the frenzy surrounding the taboo of sex, especially juxtaposed with our own non-celebrity.
“We failed to tell that story. Instead we told a much darker and more disturbing story.”
The duo nonetheless went ahead and released its latest video, which mixes a performance with grainy shots of sexual activity.
Public concern has mounted about online sexual exploitation in an era when most people in developed countries have constant access to the Internet.
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