April Fools’ Day is just around the corner. While it’s the perfect time to pull pranks on your coworkers by baking their stapler into a pie of jello or deflating their car tires, the marketing potential of April Fools’ Day is immense. After all, it presents brands with a once-in-a-year opportunity to boost engagement and widen audience reach by coming up with the most absurd campaigns without really worrying about accountability.
So, to help you get into the spirit of the season, we are here with a list of 5 of the best April Fools' posts by brands. If you’re planning to use this April 1 to create some seriously funny marketing content, you can seek some inspiration from these brands who have mastered the art of April Fools.
1. Petco: Furever Weddings
First comes love, then comes marriage. For everything in between, Petco’s pet wedding service will help pets and their pet parents create the pet wedding of their dreams!
Released in 2019, Petco’s Furever Weddings was showcased as a personalized wedding planning service including planning and design of the big day; formal wear fittings; petiquette training (for their big walk down the aisle); pet-i-cures; and so much more!
Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it was released on April Fools’ Day, so you can figure out exactly how honest Petco was about this latest service.
2. Google Play
For its 2017 April Fools’ Day campaign, Google came up with an advert that tugged at our heartstrings by showcasing how lonely our pets feel when we’re away.
So, Google put a spin on marketing its gaming apps, not towards humans, but for pets. The new addition featured interactive pet games as well as training apps. The ad seemed so genuine that many people might have actually considered subscribing to these games for their pets.
Unfortunately, it was only a prank but it would surely not hurt if it was real.
3. T-Mobile
What would be your reaction if someone said to you that you could now use your shoe as your phone? That’s exactly the premise of T-Mobile's 2018 April Fools’ Day ad.
T-Mobile stepped into the festivities of 2018 April Fools by unleashing the world's first “foot phone”, thereby, dropping all the capabilities of a smartphone at your feet- literally.
Luckily, the brand was joking and we won’t be seeing anyone sporting the foot phone anytime soon. Honestly, that’s too disgusting to be real. Imagine placing your shoe to your ears to speak to someone over a call.
4. Tinder: Height Verification
If you have ever used Tinder to find dates, you will surely be aware of the concept of ‘height catfishing’ where your date is not as tall as they lead you to believe.
Well, Tinder decided to bring some honesty back into dating by introducing its ‘height verification’ feature, which was probably aimed at stopping people from exaggerating their height.
Now that’s how you bring some truthfulness into the world of online dating. But avoid getting these commercials out on April Fools’ Day.
5. PayPal
Imagine if someone told you that you could print your own money. Sounds like a load of crap, right? But it would sound credible if it came from an established financial technology company like Paypal.
PayPal came up with a hilarious April Fools’ Day campaign in 2018. The brand claimed that smartphone users would soon be able to print money from their phones.
Well, as cool as it sounds it would be super illegal. I think I’ll stick with ATMs or online transactions.
Wrapping Up
And that was a wrap of some of the best April Fools’ Day commercials from recent years. April Fools’ day offers a wonderful opportunity for brands to showcase their creativity and sense of humor while generating buzz and attention from their customers at the same time. April Fools’ Day stunts can quickly go viral on social media and give brands a chance to widen their audience.
We’ll be back for you with some of the best April Fools’ Day campaigns from this year. Till then, stay tuned!