I wonder if society at large is critical enough of stuff like this to prevent a replay of "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. A zombie outbreak is a natural modern progression.
Not so sure people would fall for it today, because keep in mind that in the 20's and 30's, people were way more gullible due to the influx of horror and science fiction that was being cranked out by dimestore novelists at the time, as well as the more "superstitious" time we lived in when people were more fearful of things they didn't understand. The radio was a very powerful media tool as it was the major source of news at the time.
Today, we live in a day and age when nothing is sacred, nor does anything surprise us anymore, and the media is everywhere and too predictable and too full of well, y'know
However, Bushma reminds of me of something many years back:
I remember about 15 years ago there was a TV movie which had a War of the Worlds style only with a meteor or something like that. There were disclaimers every commercial break. Could be really interesting social study though.
Does anyone remember the mid-70's broadcasts of
Night of The Living Dead that were on ABC in the wee hours of the night? One time we were watching it, and there was a disclaimer playing on the screen during the newsroom broadcast that the dead were returning to life. Makes me wonder how many people saw that and thought somethng was up?