"April Fools!": The Best of April Fools 2015

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Some days throughout the year pass us by under a commercialistic, ‘you must buy this crappy card that you don’t want’ sick making cloud. Even some days that we enjoy, such as Christmas and Easter have become so much about the products and the gifts that they are beginning to fade in to insignificance.

April Fools Day is, on the other hand, one day that everyone can enjoy. It’s a chance for everyone to bring out their inner child and be as silly as you possibly can with the security of the “April Fool!” get out of jail free card.

Whether it’s cling film on the toilet seat, salt in the sugar or simply pretending you haven’t done something you were supposed to do, April Fools day pranks never disappoint.Unless, of course, you haven’t actually done that thing that you were supposed to do, in which case you’re probably due a smacked wrist.

Some of the best April Fools pranks, though, are done by the geniuses in the Marketing + PR departments of major brands and companies. This year we the general public have been treated to a veritable Smörgåsbord of pranks, including such treats as Clear Marmite, a self-tanning digital shower and even the birth of a unicorn in Florida.

Having researched this year’s pranks in detail in order to write this utterly entertaining piece of literature, I have decided that there are three main types of April Fools Stunts.

The first type are the pranks that are so ridiculous they couldn’t have been anything other than pranks. For example the RNIB (that’s the Royal National Institute for the Blind, if you didn’t know) announced the launch of #CATNAV. If you haven’t guessed where this is leading, no pun intended, I’ll tell you. #CATNAV is the proposed use of Cats trained to guide the blind or partially sited. My favourite thing about this stunt was the images of cats on leads.

Similarly the Clarkson Caravan from Freedom to Go was unconvincing, despite admittedly being quite funny. The caravan offers such features as pre-programmed Sat Navs directing Jezza to the nearest Job Centre and an abacus for counting to ten in times of rage. Actually in hindsight that second feature might not be a bad idea.

Other obvious, yet hilarious examples include the launch of the Ginster’s TOWIE pasty- chicken and chardonnay in a pastry case with edible jazzles; Homebase’s Rainbow Paint; Hunter’s Dog Boots and Hailo’s ‘piggyback’ feature, which yes, does involve people getting piggybacks instead of cabs.

The second type of stunts are those that are clearly fake but actually may have the basis of a good idea, or at very least make people think for a second.

My favourite example of a stunt which fits this category is the bouncy isles in Tesco. Being vertically challenged, the placement of items on shelves higher than the jolly green giant is utterly irritating. Obviously trampolines in the floor of Isle 12 has its safety issues but the idea isn’t without promise.

Then there’s the introduction of selfie spots for footballers during goal celebrations. Again, not without promise. I’m sure many of them would quite like a selfie. Remember the Steven Gerrard camera kiss celebration? I’m sure he would have loved to have captured that moment in the ultimate celebration selfie.

There’s also Hiive’s effort. Being an (not-so-secret) fan of 90’s/00’s boybands Hiive’s stunt made me giggle. The social networking site announced the creation of sister site 5iive, a professional network for former members of the boyband 5ive.  Obviously silly as there are only 5 of them, well now 4, but maybe it’s an idea they could roll out to the Sugarbabes. That idea’s got legs.

I have decided that there are three main types of April Fools Stunts.

The third category of April Fools Stunts are the ones that you actually can’t determine to be pranks. For example, this morning I read an article in the independent that stated that Jeremy Clarkson was to become Cameron’s chief advisor for Transport. I admit that it may seem an obvious jest but I wouldn’t put it past them. They live in the same village. They both hate the Green Party. Plus the Independent wouldn’t lie to me, would they?! My suspicious were raised, however, when reading the caption for the image which stated that ‘The Top Gear presenter will have ‘all the steak he can eat’ at Westminster’. To be fair he probably would but that’s not a genuine caption.

Amazon also cashed in on the tomfoolery with the launch of their new feature ‘Amazon Dash’. This is a little button that you press when you are running low on something, such as washing powder or shampoo, and then sends an reminder to your phone to remind you to order it. The interesting thing about this prank was that, apparently, it wasn’t a prank. That’s right it was so believable that it was true.  The PR World were left debating whether the timing of this announcement, in line with April Fools was a touch of genius or simply fool hardy. Personally I think it’s a stroke of genius. People would look at something, wish it was true then find it out it was and do a little squeal.

What all three types of stunt have in common is the demonstration of how creative marketers and Comms Teams are. Also how embracing your inner child and simply looking at things in a silly, light hearted way can actually help creativity. I guess the moral of this story is don’t over think stuff. Some of your best creativity comes when you simply have a laugh.

To paraphrase Doc Brown in Back to the Future, if only we could somehow harness that creativity and churn out such innovations for real on a daily basis. If nothing else it would make Dragon’s Den more amusing and, more generally, the world would be such a happier place. No pressure Marketing. No Pressure.

To see more examples of this year’s hilarious April Fools tom foolery visit our Pinterest board https://uk.pinterest.com/72Point/april-fools-2015/ .