April Fool’s Day was first celebrated in the year – 1642. It was marked for the remembrance of Saint Joseph Vial, celebrating his cheerful smile that he held on to even in his last moments. One of his daily chores included: playing a prank on someone in the neighbourhood. He played his last prank on the day of his death – April 1, 1642.
Businesses, all over the world looked up to Saint Joseph and they continued his work of playing pranks on their audience on the first day of April. Here are 15 such instances when the famous brands really got the better of their audience through historic announcements about things which might not have been entirely true.
1. Domino’s – Edible packaging for the first time!
Domino’s declared that they were the first company send their pizzas in a box made of pizza dough. Packaging in Snacks = Snackaging.
2. Lego Toys – Ninja turtles delivered via turtles.
Lego Toys harped about how Ninja turtles would soon be delivered via live turtles, on their back. Super idea!
3. HeliYum – Helium infused beer which tastes better!
A particular brewer by the name of Sam Adams claimed that he had synthesized the first of its kind helium-carbonated beer -which is light, smooth and can turn your voice squeaky.
4. Netflix – Sizzling Bacon is the ‘hottest’ series in town.
Netflix announced its first new release for the season – ‘Sizzling Bacon’ which it promoted by describing it as a “memento-style puzzle which will put the viewers in to the frying pan”.
5. Westjet – Moving their flight schedule to metric time.
West-Jet, Canada’s premier airline announced that for the ‘convenience of passengers’ they would be start declaring the plane timings as per the ‘metric time’, which is not difficult to calculate at all!
6. Samsung and HTC – Wearable technology for the swag gurus!
Samsung and HTC unveiled their ‘wearable technology’ which will enable people to wear phones like a glove on their hand. Wicked stuff!
7. CERN – Included Justin Bieber in their logo.
World’s leading laboratory played a prank on the world by declaring that they would be changing their font to ‘comic sans’ and adding Justin Bieber to their logo. Why so serious world?
8. Google Nose – Transmitting scents around the world.
Those brilliant minds at Google claimed to have invented ‘Google Nose’ which smells things around the world and transmits scent to any part of the world, helping us appreciate mother nature in our fast-paced lives.
9. Tumblr Pro – The next gen Tumblr.
Tumblr pulled the most convincing prank by making an interesting video about a certain ‘Tumblr Pro’ – which is the next level of Tumblr. See here:
10. Airbnb – Enabling the renting of Office Desks by the hour.
Airbnb claimed they were diversifying from renting accommodation to renting ‘office desks’ by the hour. Hilarious one!
11. Sony – Power food that charges you and your gadgets.
Sony claimed to have made revolutionary progress in inventing ‘voltaic enzymes’ which you could eat to power yourself up, as well as your gadgets.
12. Sydney Iceberg – The millionaire hoax.
A local businessman had announced publicly that he would bring an iceberg from Antarctica for the Sydneysiders and sell the ice for 10 cents each. He claimed that the fresh ice would enhance taste.
13. Burger King – Special whopper for the left-handed.
Burger King introduced a Left-handed Whopper in which it claimed all the condiments were moved 180 degrees to suit the southpaws. A burger is round and that apparently didn’t cross the mind of their gullible audience. The hilarious fact about this prank is the right handed in the queue, making sure they weren’t handed a ‘leftie burger’!
14. Tic Tac – Shakeless container enabling you to not share.
Tic Tac unveiled their shakeless container packed inside with bubble wrap to ‘have the whole without sharing it with anyone else.’
15. Peugeot – Audio Sonic Personalized Horns for your car.
The world famous car brand put forth their claims about coming up with the first personalized horns for your car, where you can choose from a database or even upload your own.
16. Virgin Atlantic – see through glass floor to freak passengers out.
Virgin Atlantic planned to scare its patrons by arranging the floor of the plane with see-through glass. It might’ve worked too, we think!
I hope you figured that the intro was a pathetic April Fool’s attempt. If you didn’t, booyah! All the brand stories aren’t a figment of the writer’s imagination, he isn’t talented enough to invent those pranks.
