© HOA sketch of a man that is said to have invaded many people's dreams.
An elaborate campaign is swirling around the image of a simple, bushy-browed man, who is said to be invading people's dreams.
Over the past week, This Man has appeared in mainstream newspapers from England to China, as well as found a home on YouTube and countless blogs.
But his story is more likely a pipe dream - a clever marketing experiment on the way outlandish yarns now take on lives of their own.
The legend, claimed by the site www.thisman.org, is that in 2006, a patient of a New York psychiatrist sketched the face of a man who was invading her dreams.
In her sleep, he was said to be guiding her.
Some time after, the story continues, another patient notices the drawing of the character - a meld of Joe-average and enough prominent features to look vaguely familiar - and claimed he also recognized This Man from his dream world.
"From January 2006 until today, at least 2,000 people have claimed they have seen This Man in their dreams, in many cities all over the world," the site explains.
Some say he flies in their dreams. Others say he doesn't speak. Still others fall in love with him.
An official from thisman.org, who identified herself as Simona Gigli, tells Sun Media the Italian site is managed by people dreaming of This Man.
"Many Canadians have dreamt (of) This Man. We are aware of about ten examples even before the site was starting to be known," Gigli wrote in an emailed response to us.
"We are aware that it is not explainable and even not believable."
There's reality in that observation. Despite making it around the world, it's now known that This Man is connected to Italian sociologist and marketing expert, Andrea Natella, who's made a career out of studying hoaxes.
But in a response to questions from Sun Media as to why the registering of the website can be traced back to him, Natella swears This Man is as real as any dream.
"Thousands of people all around the world dream about This Man and you still (look) for a marketing hoax," the sociologist chastised, adding he's only involved to help some friends explain the phenomena.
Natella ends his note with the question: "Are you sure that nobody NOW dreams about this man?"
Which means, thanks to a marketers influence on another continent, the balding guy with the bushy brows may now become the man of your dreams.
... that's my FATHER!