In the offices of The National today, a press release landed in company email under a Moet & Chandon logo.

The message included the following:

–That a new variety of the company’s famous champagne, “Moet Platinum” was being launched.

–To mark the occasion, on May 25 the company would fill the Dubai Fountain, just outside the Burj Khalifa, with 22,000 gallons of the new Moet Platinum.

–Guests would be treated to a light and sound show, and artists Moby and Jay-Z would provide original music.

And so far … remember, this is Dubai we’re talking about — it sounded almost plausible.

Not until this next point was the “BS sensor” activated in editors.

“The French national synchronized swimming team has been confirmed to make an appearance.”

That last bit allowed editors to be 99 percent sure it was not the latest in Dubai overkill and was, instead, a hoax dreamed up for April Fool’s Day, today.

Upon a second reading, it became clear that no public relations company was taking credit for the “news release” and that no names were given anywhere. Reinforcing the hoax notion.

I generally am OK with the concept of pranks on April Fool’s Day. The BBC did a famous one in 1957, the infamous Spaghetti Harvest hoax that appeared on the Panorama show.

Another well-known April 1 hoax was perpetrated by Sports Illustrated, in 1985, when George Plimpton wrote about the reclusive but potential superstar pitcher Sidd Finch, a New York Mets minor-leaguer who could throw a ball 168 miles per hour but had yet to decide between a career playing baseball or the French horn.

No harm done, even if both media outlets had to make clear that the original story was a fable.

I fear, however, that in an increasingly integrated planet, the notion of an April Fool’s joke — pretty much unknown outside Europe and North America — could cause some fairly significant confusion. Even trouble.

No matter how many hints, along the way, that the story is ridiculous, if you don’t know baseball or don’t know pasta … you might take the report at face value. As a real thing.

We can attest that, here in the UAE, the satire internet publication Pan-Arabia Enquirer is nothing but made-up stories, and declares itself to be satire in the logo, a subdeck of which reads: “Spreading the hummous of satire over the flatbread of news”.

But hardly a day passes without someone from the region writing an angry letter about “irresponsible” reporting at the satire site. And every week or two, a publication somewhere in the region lifts and publishes the “news” from the satire site.

And, in a delicious twist today, Pan-Arabia Enquirer seems to have been taken in by the Moet hoax, tweeting: “Anyone else see this about the Dubai Fountain being filled with Moet??? Once again, reality > satire.”

Going forward, we need to make clear when a joke is a joke. Perhaps by saying: “What you just read is a joke! It is not true! It is indulging in a European custom!”

But, even now, I wonder how many local reporters will show up at the Dubai Fountain on May 25 to see the French national synchronized swimming team perform in 22,000 gallons of champagne.

Wouldn’t they all get sticky, and a little tipsy?