(Credit: Lucky magazine, screenshot)

“Shopping & style” Lucky magazine reader Rosemary Avance called out the magazine for running a fake quote praising a free gift she repeatedly told the magazine she never received, Jezebel reported.

The quote relates to a $750 dress that Avance was told she won from the magazine in February.  The quote, which Avance said is fake, said:

“I’ve won a few small prizes in my life, but nothing compares to winning this gorgeous dress by Jahaanara! The designer custom-made it for me, so it fits perfectly. I’ve worn it out to dinner with my husband and out dancing with my girlfriends— and I’ll be wearing it to an upcoming wedding. Thanks, Lucky Breaks!”

Problem is Avance hadn’t gotten the dress, and said she told Lucky via email interviews that she hadn’t gotten the dress, and that she wasn’t OK with the magazine saying that she has worn it “dancing with my girlfriends.”  After publication, Avance complained to the magazine, writing that she is “appalled” by the fake quote which she noted is “misleading” and “inaccurate,” Jezebel wrote.  She added “I expressly asked you NOT to print” and

“This lack of journalistic integrity in such a seemingly simple matter is really disappointing.  If you purposely fabricate quotes from readers, I know now I cannot rely on any other information in your magazine to be ethically reported.”

The magazine responded, according to Jezebel, that apologizing and “Your dress is on its way, since I believe you said you will be receiving this June, so you will have the dress by the time the issue is off newsstands, which again verifies everything you submitted with our research department.”

Avance told iMediaEthics that she told Jezebel her story because she “was so frustrated when I saw the quote in the magazine.” She said she got ” a phone call from Lucky’s editors several days after the Jezebel story ran” and “They seemed to think that my complaint was about not having received the dress, when in fact my concern was that a false quote was attributed to me.”

Avance said she doesn’t expect Lucky will correct and that the magazine’s executive editor Deb Schwartz told her that Lucky “would ‘talk about it’ but most likely wouldn’t since they don’t normally print correctionss over things like this.”

We’ve written to Schwartz for comment and will update with any response.

Hat Tip: Yael Grauer