Skeptics love April 1 — it’s the one day of the year when everyone approaches things with more skepticism. Marketers love it, too, as it’s an opportunity to push out creative ideas without the pesky restraints of, well, reality!
Last week we all saw some jarring posts about prominent businesses, either too good or too bizarre to be true. And other online pranks were all too believable.
An Instagram post by real.vegas.locals announced (in pretty decently crafted press-release form) that, in a water conservation move, the Bellagio fountains would be replaced with an upscale mall. Other posts on X claimed that Taylor Swift was starting a residency at Caesars, or that guests were suddenly evacuated out of the Tropicana Hotel for a much-earlier-than-planned implosion. These have since disappeared, but I’d be willing to bet the number of phone calls Caesars got about that supposed Swift residency was above zero.
So, communications teams at prominent businesses know they will sometimes have to do some crisis communication on April 1, to address false rumors caused by outside actors. Other times, the crisis comes from inside the house — when a corporate joke misfires, it can be catastrophic to a brand’s reputation or even the bottom line.
Ever-hopeful prankster Elon Musk decided to prank the world in 2018 by announcing that Tesla was bankrupt. This move not only made communications experts wince, it also pulled the value of Tesla stock down 5% and was seen as poor taste due to the string of real crises Tesla had been weathering at that time — including scrutiny over a fatal crash involving its autopilot system.
In 2001, a Florida Hooters learned the hard way that it was not nice to prank a waitress into thinking she’d won a new Toyota for selling the most beer on April 1. She did not react well to being gifted a “toy Yoda” instead, and lawyered up. (Way to reward your top-performing employee with a dose of public humiliation and disappointment, yikes!) Not only did Hooters face massive public shaming, the restaurant’s corporate owner, Gulf Coast Wings Inc., settled out of court for an amount that would pay for “whatever type of Toyota she wants,” according to her attorney.
But the vast majority of publicity pranks fall somewhere between forgettable and fun. The Museum of Hoaxes has curated a list of corporate April Fools’ Day hoaxes, documenting the efforts of business owners and marketers going back to the 1970s. A few favorites of mine are the release of the “left-handed Mars bar” and lickable vodka ads (though there really were lickable Welch’s grape juice ads the year before!).
These days, it seems all pranks have moved onto the not-very-lickable social media landscape, which brings another set of considerations. Remember, these April 1 posts can take on a life that lasts long past spring. Bizarre social media content has a way of popping up again and again, changing form and spawning rumors or conspiracies. So, marketers must ask themselves, “Will this post be damaging if it shows up later, without the context of April Fools’ Day?”
Yes, yes, it can be frustrating to hear about all the cautionary tales that hem in efforts at humor. April Fooling can still be fun, just be sensible about it! A few fun posts stood out to me this year.
Circa announced it was raising its age limit to 31, stating “let’s face it, you don’t truly appreciate a jackpot win until you’re in your thirties.” That self-limiting gag made me smile, and honestly made me wish for a resort that restricted all those pesky 20-somethings to a kids area!
Green Valley Ranch ponied up a clever tweet about turning part of their property into a real, working ranch, complete with some obviously photoshopped horses. This one was a winner in my book, as it (intentionally or not) gave a nod to Nevada’s history of ranching — including “divorce ranches” — and played on the property’s name, always a marketing plus. The image was also just cheesy enough to evoke some pre-AI nostalgia and make it clearly a gag. Had the social media team generated a seamless image, it would not have worked half as well.
In today’s news landscape, when satire or malicious disinformation is becoming increasingly hard to sift out from real news, the bar is set pretty high for what counts as “obviously a joke.” And April Fools’ has always skated that line between what’s ridiculous and what’s just believable enough to, well, fool people. Deep down, we all love a good hoax — as long as no one gets hurt!
Celestia Ward is Imagine’s PR Coordinator and a big fan of clever hoaxes throughout history — especially those of Ben Franklin and Edgar Allen Poe.