April Fool’s Day: Brands that pulled the best pranks this year

• Considering that we are still fighting a global pandemic, brands tried to tread the line between humorous and insensitive campaigns this year.
• So, from Volkswagen (Voltswagen) to Ola AirPro, here are a few April Fool’s Day campaigns that almost had us fooled!

With COVID cases on the rise again, we are all looking for a comic relief. This April Fool’s Day, brands have got your back.

On the first day of April, brands usually pull a prank on their consumers by launching fake products, misdirect them into hoaxes or simply remind them to not be a fool. This year too, brands did not disappoint. They used their marketing campaigns to help their consumers giggle or drive home a bigger message through their pranks.

On the other hand, experts applauded Google’s decision to put pause on its April Fool’s prank this year. The tech giant aims to express its solidarity with the healthcare workers and the grieving families recovering from the loss of loved ones.

To help you forget the bigger prank life is pulling on all of us, here are a few light-hearted campaigns that caught our attention and made us laugh:

Ola

As fuel prices skyrocketed this year, Ola decided to launch a fully autonomous electric flying car called ‘Ola AirPro.’ The car is so light that you can lift it with one hand and you won’t ever need to worry about finding the perfect parking spot and worry about poor urban planning.

Over the years, Ola has almost always played a prank on its users on April Fool’s starting from announcing Ola newsroom to Ola Restroom. With its clever campaigns, the brand never fails to drive home a bigger message and comment on the ever-changing socio-political environment.


The ride-hailing company has also launched a website to track consumer interest.

MTV India

Ever fell for “Bas 12th nikal lo, ek baar college mil gaya toh maze hi maze?” Join the club, friend!

This campaign will make you ponder upon a lot of bad decisions that you have made in your life. At least we took an unwanted trip down the unpleasant memory lane.

MTV India’s April Fool’s Day campaign is an eye-opening comment on unrealistic standards that our parents often set for us. It is about those parents who make your life, career and relationship decisions for you. “So, this April Fool’s Day, raise a toast with MTV and have a laugh for being the fools we never intended to be,” reads its caption.

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Urban Company

Ever made the mistake of snoozing your alarm and barely made it to your 9 am Zoom call? Urban Company has a solution for you! Its new #AlarmAtHome service will send a trained professional to wake you up from your sleep, no matter what.

Jokes apart, some of us unorganised bachelors really need this.


Flipkart

The e-commerce giant gives you a glimpse of the future with its April Fool’s Day prank. It said that the platform will accept bitcoin as a mode of payment. While it is just a prank, it might be a possibility very soon! This social media campaign is conceptualised by Dentsu Webchutney.


Volkswagen

A brand that had everyone talking with its April Fool’s prank globally is Volkswagen.

Carmaker Volkswagen published a press release announcing that its US operations will be changing its name to ‘Voltswagen.’ The move, read the release, was to signify the company’s commitment to electrifying its fleet. However, the auto giant has now announced that it was just a prank.


Keventers

What does a brand do when Holi and April Fool’s Day are almost back to back? Shake it up for its fans with some well-intentioned fun, 'cos “Bura Na Mano, Holi Hai”. Keventers launched a limited time period ‘Bhang Flavoured Milkshake’, on the eve of the Holi long weekend; with a reveal on April Fool’s Day of how they had orchestrated a well-timed and aptly themed prank around a product that didn't really exist.

The result of the campaign was to get more eyeballs and create social media chatter around the Bhang Flavoured Milkshake. It also gave the brand an opportunity to engage with existing audiences and reach out to new ones, while reminding them that Keventers is a brand that has a personality, a sense of humour, and a penchant for experimentation. The brand’s page saw a week-on-week jump in profile visit by 60%+ increase and its impressions hiked by 500%+. It also received 2K+ calls in their outlets across the country just asking for Bhang Flavoured Milkshake.

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Ixigo

Turbulence is a major cause of anxiety for travellers. So, this April Fool's, Ixigo decided to launch a smart seat that makes its travellers' trip turbulence-free.

According to Ixigo, its anti-turbulence cushion is a result of our groundbreaking research in gyro sensors, hydraulic pistons and industry-grade shock absorption. With applied learnings from car suspension systems, earthquake resistance technology and NASA following their robotic suspension for the Mars rovers.

Marking the company's foray into the air cushion packaging market, anti-turbulence cushion has already received 1,500 registrations.