Best of April Fool Pranks by Companies
Alas ! Its that time of the year where we would receive forward texts/SMS such as “Fact 1: You cannot touch your lower lip with your tongue. Fact 2: After reading this, 99/100 idiots would try it. Hahaha.” Even if we felt pranked at times by these sort of tricks, we tend to utilise it on others just to make sure that we aren’t the only ones who were hoaxed. And for a change, let’s look at few of my favourites and best pranks made by companies to make sure that their customers aren’t having weary day on Apr 1 by unleashing their most creative minds in enthralling ads and campaigns.
1. Bargain from BMW
This probably would have been the most familiar prank for many of us. It was Apr 2015, when BMW posted an ad in a newspaper called New Zealand Herald stating that the company would give away a BMW car in an exchange for the car of the person that he/she drives into the BMW showroom. Tianna Marsh, like many of us thought that it was just another April’s day prank. But she did what many of us never would have done. She drove her 15 year-old car to the BMW showroom in a hope that the prank would be true. In turn of events, she ended up getting 25 K pounds worth of a BMW car in exchange for her own car. Well, it had turned out that BMW played one of the great pranks on all those who read the newspaper that day.
2. Talk to Tulip/Blow the Cloud
Google always have a knack of producing some of the brilliant pranks on people year on year. Be it Self-driving bicycle, Google Nose, Screen Cleaner, Google Gnome etc. But Google Tulip is one of the better pranks with slogan “Talk to Tulip” which is themed around a human to plant communication via a google tulip app. It further stated that it had made a tulip language that was to be rolled out later in its 2019 prank. Google Wind was another gem which stated that it has connected 1170 wind mills in Holland to blow away the cloudy winds that rains for more than 140 days a year. Hmm! Wish I had something like that to make sure that my country (India) gets rain every year without fail :P.
3. Pluto as a Planet (PaaP)
Sir Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin Group of companies announced on April 1, 2011 that he bought the Pluto for an undisclosed amount.
“As a firm supporter of small businesses Sir Richard is hoping to set an example for struggling entrepreneurs facing setbacks by having Pluto reinstated as an official planet, after its declassification by the International Astronomical Union in 1996.”
was stated in its official website as a part of its announcement.However, this was later revealed to be a hoax. Well ! This prank would have been taken up seriously by the NASA chief as he stated that “pluto is still a planet” in 2019.(A prank for my part)
4. Helium of Coke
In Apr 2017, Coca Cola had announced that it would be launching a new flavour of coke called as “Coca Cola Helium”. This so called Coke has a tinge of helium in it and when the person consumes the coke, it can make the sound of the drinker to travel faster and also to be responsive towards the high-pitched sounds. However, it was revealed later that it was a ploy to prank the public.
5. A vow for Vowel (Twitter)
In another hilarious prank, on Apr 1 2013, Twitter announced that it would basically make twitter a two variant model. While the basic version of Twitter is free, there was a void that they cannot use the vowels in the tweet. The premium version of twitter can cost as much as 5 dollars a month which comes with the vowels in it. Twitter also justified by stating this amendment allows the most effective and dense form of communication.It also induced another prank by stating the promoted product can have 141 character tweets with extra character being priced by the bidding system. #Nbdy_sw_tht_cmng.
These were my favourite and few of the best pranks. Let me know your favourite pranks in the comment below.
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