Every year, April Fools’ Day comes along and brands get to cut loose and have a little fun. Most brands April Fools’ pranks are forgettable. However, each year a few brands rise above the rest and create some truly memorable prank content. A really good piece of April Fools’ Day content can get a brand publicity that they might not get otherwise. In 2014, these six brands created truly great, funny content.
Google Maps Pokemon Hunt
Google is an April Fools’ all-star and this year was no exception. Perhaps their best gag was turning the popular Google Maps app for iOS and Android into a version of the popular video game Pokemon. Using the app, you can search your map and find, and catch, Pokemon. To get you started, Pikachu is hiding out at the Tokyo Tower in Japan.
Build Your Own Honda
Honda takes the frustration of marketing to urban Millennials to its logical extreme with the Honda Handmade Series. We all know that Millennials are DIYers, so Honda “released” a DIY Honda. Buy a kit, and build a car to go with your home-brewed kombucha.
Trip Advisor Recommends Trips to Fictional Locales
Looking for a place to go on vacation? Why not check out Mordor? Or Panem? Or Azkaban Prison?
Microsoft brings back Clippy
Back in the day when you opened a Microsoft Office product for the first time, a “helpful” paperclip avatar named Clippy. Users… kind of hated Clippy. As an April Fools’ Joke, Microsoft brought Clippy back.
ThinkGeek’s Rosetta Stone Klingon Edition
Rosetta Stone claims to be one of the best ways to learn French, Spanish, Chinese, and… Klingon? ThinkGeek is another April Fools’ rock star. This year, they released several April Fools’ products, but the best of the best is the Rosetta Stone Klingon Edition with accompanying video by Michael Dorn who played the Klingon security officer Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Twitter Helmet
For April Fools’ Day Twitter got in on the fun by claiming they were getting into the wearable market with a helmet. The Twitter helmet would allow users to tweet with simple head movements and was supposed to be released in September.
Did you spot other great brand gags? Share them with us in the comments below.
