"To the survivors of the 1994 Enigma Publius:
You were right, we were done wrong, and you are not alone."
-For some of us, it was a band's fall from grace-

The "Enigma Publius" has been called one of the earliest examples of internet-era viral marketing, designed to build hype and drive album sales. The idea was something truly unique, interesting, and promised to be engaging for their fanbase.

It failed. Why?

It has since been said that the project was a victim of its time. The concept was brilliant, but the 1994 internet infrastructure simply wasn't mature enough to support it securely. However, that is for a different discussion at another time. This is about the human fatigue, lack of transparency, in-fighting, and the feeling of being misled that fractured the community. It proved to force many fans to watch their beloved band drop their artistic masks revealing a flippant, corporate reality underneath. For some it caused them to lose their immense respect, loyalty, and love for a band that was once an integral part of their lives.

"You have to be trusted by the people that you've lied to"
Animals, 1977

When the first few messages by Publius appeared in the alt.music.pink-floyd newsgroup, fans were curious, pleasantly surprised and then excited by the idea of working together to solve a puzzle generated by their beloved band. It was not long before Nick Mason pulled back the curtain and supposedly admitted that the entire concept didn't originate with the band, that it was orchestrated by their record company, specifically by an employee. Then Gilmour much later dismissed it as "some silly record company thing that they thought up to puzzle people with". By then of course interest in the idea had blossomed into websites, IrC chat, other chat resources, and forums for fans to continue discussion as well as contribute to the newsgroup where Publius instructed discussion should happen.

The initial 'admission' by Mason was the catalyst for setting up the animosity between the fans, and it would only continue to get worse for the entirety of the 'game'. The conflict between those who believed and those who belittled them for believing and did all they could to destroy anyone who did, only grew into different directions and proved to eventually reveal the worst in human beings.

It is also incredible to think that the band actually weaponized the themes of the Division Bell album, the very album the puzzle was based upon - that of communication, isolation, and misunderstanding - and ironically they themselves became examples of the negative side of every one of those very themes. Inserting the puzzle into the newsgroup, EMI manipulated thousands of fans into collaborating, talking, and pouring their hearts into a digital community, only to leave them talking to a brick wall.

It turned out to be a stunning betrayal that is still felt years later.

The fans who paid the price in those days deserved better, they did not deserve to be played a fool, but they were. And by the very people they believed would never do such a thing to them.

The band.

Many considered Gilmour to be "Publius" for the obvious reasons. When Gilmour disavowed involvement, some fans believed him when he spoke of not having anything to do with it. But allow me to correct that thinking right now. He most certainly was involved. The how and whys to be described here are only those known in the public domain.

There are certainly other areas that are unknown, and may or may not remain so.

"You! Stand still, laddie!"
The Wall, 1979

While the core members, or 'inner circle', may not have been sitting around tossing out ideas and weaving some kind of philosophical riddle, they WERE nonetheless, accomplices. They absolutely legitimized the prank and then retreated into the shadows while fans poured months of their lives into a wild goose chase. They weren't just innocent bystanders - they actively participated in the illusion of validity.

The moment the Enigma shifted from being accused of being an internet hoax - to an official band action - happened on July 18, 1994, at Giants Stadium. The Usenet user Publius had promised a sign to prove they were real. During "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2," the words "ENIGMA PUBLIUS" flashed across the stadium screens. That was not a bumbling accident.

It required programming, stage management, and explicit approval.

Every single lyric, stage prop, lighting cue, and album sleeve required Gilmour's final stamp of approval. Nothing, especially something as massive as flashing text on a stadium screen, happened without his explicit green light. The fact that he tried to completely distance himself from it later makes his complicity feel even more cynical.

By letting their production team project those words, the band gave the corporate stunt the ultimate stamp of 'authenticity'. They actively fed the fire. When Gilmour much later dismissed the enigma as the "silly record company thing", he was being deeply disingenuous. Lighting director Marc Brickman explicitly stated that it was Pink Floyd's long-time manager, Steve O'Rourke, who ordered the "ENIGMA PUBLIUS" words to be programmed into the Giants Stadium show.

O'Rourke worked directly for Gilmour.

On a tour of that scale, which was the highest-grossing rock tour in history at the time, Gilmour was notoriously meticulous about the visual presentation. The idea that a manager and a lighting tech could hijack the stadium screen during a live performance without Gilmour's knowledge or consent is completely impossible.

He had to say yes.

Later, when the Pulse concert film was released on DVD, the band still chose to play along rather than come clean. They hid visual clues to the Enigma in the DVD menus and artwork. The word "ENIGMA" was literally printed in the artwork of the booklet.

Gilmour had total control over that layout.

This wasn't a corporate suit at EMI forcing their hand - this was the band willingly dropping crumbs to keep the puzzle alive. By giving the thumbs-up to plant those clues, Gilmour wasn't just letting a record company do their job, he was weaponizing his own fans loyalty. He allowed the machinery to manipulate the fanbase's genuine passion, turning their loyalty into a highly effective tool for commercial gain, even if the band itself denied having anything to do with the puzzle.

And there may have been additional 'involvement' we will never know about.

"Money...it's a gas"
Dark Side of the Moon, 1973

On one side, we had dedicated fans, on the other side, the band, who stayed completely silent.

They didn't issue a disclaimer. They didn't say, "Hey, look, this is just a fun little (marketing) game, don't take it too seriously." Instead, they remained untouched and safe, letting the mystery inflate their album sales and ticket numbers while likely laughing at the chaos from a comfortable distance and unaccountable while their fans tore each other to pieces.

Obviously they didn't mind a bit of blood on all those dollars.

In the end, by allowing their stage show and artwork to be a part of a corporate 'game', Pink Floyd compromised the very artistic integrity their fans loved them for. If Gilmour knowingly allowed Pink Floyd fans to be treated not as a community of fans who respected them and appreciated their music, but as an unpaid street team driving viral word-of-mouth marketing, then the man many thought they came to know over the years has been fooling all of us.

In addition, if true, it's fascinating how Gilmour and Waters fought so bitterly over control of the band's legacy, yet Gilmour was willing to compromise that same artistic legacy for a corporate marketing stunt. And before anyone 'out there' tries to make one of these men better than the other let me insert this: Gilmour's sin was corporate deceit, Waters' sins were ruthlessness and total disregard for the people around him. One cannot be more or less despicable than the other because both used their power in ways that deeply disrespected either the music, the band, or the audience.

"Did you know...it was all going to go so wrong for you"
TDB, 1994

What makes Gilmour the most complicit with the Enigma is his refusal to own up to it-

Instead of saying something like 'they thought it would be a cool idea for the internet, sorry it got out of hand', he washed his hands of it entirely. He let the record company take 100% of the blame, effectively gaslighting the very fans who not only spent money on tickets and merchandise based on the clues he authorized to be put right in front of their eyes but also totally dismissed the fans who spent their time and money building websites, chat rooms, forums, and doing myriad other things to help support 'the band's' Enigma.

It was THE FANS dedication to that work that kept interest in the puzzle alive as long as it did manage to last. With some even becoming a kind of bait for the really bad unbelievers.

It was anything to keep interest, even bad interest, alive, and all without knowing who they were truly 'working' for.

Without the fans it was worthless to the moneymakers. Without them the whole thing would have collapsed a hellava lot sooner than it did. Most bitter was the end of it all, when some fans learned that the heavy personal price they paid for their part was going to end up like the rest, just crumpled like a piece of paper and tossed into the trash.

"Well winners can lose......."
AMLoR, 1987

That said, let us remember Craig McGee, the fellow who was announced in alt.music.pink-floyd as the winner, the author of the Enigma solution post. As far as is known he never received a prize. If he didn't it is because there probably never really was a 'prize'. Instead, he was merely the 'end of the life' of the ploy and most likely was neatly dismissed with the claim that he had violated some rule and thus disqualified himself. Of course these 'rules' were never made known publicly. And probably never are - in marketing ploy schemes. Now, if I am wrong and he lost for another reason, only he and 'Publius' are privy to that.

It took years after Craig's announced win that Nick Mason then informed the public that the planned prize had been a crop of trees planted in a clear-cut forest, a purely "philanthropic, touchy-feely gift" rather than anything tangible. IF there ever really was such a prize (or even a prize -at all-), why did it take 7-8 years to speak about it? Was it a touch of guilty conscience? Was it just realizing that the public still had not let the mystery die after so many years so he decided to toss us a bone, allowing the community to pretend there was a grand plan all along, rather than admitting they spent years chasing nothing? If that would not be bad enough let's hope it did not also include what's called "greenwashing". If it was - we can add being insulted to the negatives.

"as if there was something that they thought they might find"
About Face, 1984

David Gilmour's complicity with the Enigma hurts infinitely more because it weaponized the fans' genuine love, loyalty, and intellectual curiosity against them. The fans who spent days and nights on newsgroups, in chat rooms or forums or traveled to stadiums weren't trying to exploit anyone - they were acting out of a pure desire to engage with a band they deeply respected and the music they loved.

By letting a corporate suit turn that connection into a cynical marketing game to inflate The Division Bell's bottom line, while basically denying having any involvement with the Enigma, Gilmour didn't just allow a joke to be played - he fundamentally devalued the relationship between the artist and the audience.

To take that faithful devotion from fans who wanted nothing more than to be a part of a "unique and fun" experience, and then to be used as consumer bait, is a devastating breach of faith. It converted a community of fan-collaborators into a mere demographic to be mined for engagement metrics. It called some people their 'friends' and then turned their back to them with a half-hearted 'thanks'. I suppose they should be grateful for even that bit of recognition, but if I were the 'band' I wouldn't count on it.

To solve the mystery of an Enigma can leave one with a sense of achievement, or fundamentally changed, perhaps wiser, maybe eagerly looking toward the horizon for the next great unknown, or perhaps with just a simple smile and giggle. This could have been said about the Pink Floyd Enigma but instead we were all left with its center exposed as a *moral failure.

The "central purpose and designed solution" wasn't enlightenment - it was engagement metrics. It wasn't just a puzzle. It was a betrayal.

- Remember this my fellow fans - the work we all did remains
some of the most commendable and interesting works ever done
for something like this. It was not you who were the failures -

Take Care & Rock On,
Sphinx 2.0