This Man

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This Man is a conceptual art project and hoax created by Italian sociologist and marketer Andrea Natella. In 2008, Natella created a website called "Ever Dream This Man?" describing a supposed mysterious individual who has reportedly appeared in the dreams of numerous people around the world since 2006.

According to the website, the first individual to report dreaming about This Man was a patient of a psychiatrist in New York City in 2006, and four other patients of the same psychiatrist also recognized the same face.^[1] The website received over 9,000 accounts from people who claimed to have encountered This Man in their dreams, sharing their stories and drawings. Various theories were proposed to explain This Man's appearance, ranging from mundane to supernatural, but none were substantiated by evidence or investigation. In 2010, Natella revealed that the site was a hoax as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign.^[2]

The website gained attention from the press and online users in October 2009 and became a viral sensation. This Man's notoriety spawned several internet memes that spoofed flyers of the website, references in films and television shows like The X-Files, and a manga series by Weekly Shonen Magazine.