The first day of April (otherwise known as April Fools Day) fell on Easter Sunday this year. That meant a lot of fake chocolate egg pranks (with grapes or brussels sprouts dipped in chocolate and wrapped in foil). It also meant that brands released their Internet pranks a little early this year so they could take advantage of the brand PR during the business days of the workweek. Early releases also made the pranks harder to pick out from reality (since most of us don’t think as hard about a press release launched on March 28th as we do one on April 1st). We’ve compiled the cleverest, funniest, and overall most entertaining brand Internet pranks we found this year.
Coolest: The Innovations We Wish Were Happening
Sure, we probably knew that these weren’t real products. If they were, however, we’d be the first to buy. Check out these (fake) products that actually make a lot of sense.
Chegg proposes we learn while doing something we love: sleeping. If it were a real product, the Osmosis pillow from Chegg would help you soak up information while you sleep. Simply place your notebook under your pillow and soak up the knowledge.
It’s never easy to clean up all of your kids’ Legos without either vacuuming them up and throwing them away forever, or walking over one too many and suffering hurt feet. Lego’s fake VacuSort would solve this issue. According to the Facebook post, the vacuum would sort Legos by color and brick shape and even separate out the dust in the bargain. For the sake of our feet, we wish this product actually existed.
Goofiest: The Jokes That Made Us Laugh the Hardest
From the somewhat plausible to the downright goofy, these were the funniest jokes and pranks this year.
A partnership between a genetic testing and analysis company and a car company doesn’t sound that funny or even that far fetched. The funny part of this was the video ad, which you can find online here. The car customized to fit your specific genes didn’t even sound that implausible – until we saw that the new car smell was “customized” to your specific preferences, the windshield matched the prescription in your glasses, and you start the car by licking the steering wheel. Gross!
Warby’s: Warby Parker and Arby’s
The collaboration between Arby’s fast food restaurant and the eyewear maker Warby Parker was confusing, and just ridiculous enough to get a lot of attention. The collaboration, which supposedly put out customized onion ring monacles, was “announced” via video and in select stores during the week leading up to April Fools, describing it as “the intersection of seeing and meats”.
Most Convincing: The Ones that (Almost) Fooled Us
Every once in a while, pranks come along that actually have us fooled. Here are the pranks this year that got us thinking.
SodaStream was able to convince Bed, Bath and Beyond to place a retail listing for their fake product, the SodaSoak, which uses the same SodaStream technology to carbonate your bathwater. SodaStream actually created a separate website for SodaSoak, complete with demos and a commercial filled with some well-known TV personalities. This product was apparently so convincing that Bed, Bath and Beyond’s listing sold out in a matter of minutes.
While we’re glad April Fools Day only comes around once a year, we do enjoy the creativity and comic relief shown across the Internet when April 1st arrives. We hope everyone had a great first day of April in any case (and didn’t get too many fake chocolate eggs)!
