April Fool’s Day is a time to unleash your best pranks on the world, and this year saw some weird and wonderful efforts from brands across the globe.
For some, it’s putting a fake engagement on Facebook. For others, it’s throwing the washing basket down the stairs and screaming as if you’ve fallen (sorry mum!). In PR, it’s the perfect time to make the most of our creativity and share a lot of laughs in the lead-up.
April 1st has seen countless imaginary tales hit the headlines over the years, and here are some of our favourites:
In 1957, the BBC broadcast a Panorama mockumentary on the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. Narrated by distinguished broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, the hoax programme featured a family from Ticino in Switzerland, carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest, with women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry. While some viewers criticised the BBC for airing the item on what is supposed to be a serious factual programme, we think it was a fab way to get people talking!
One of the most famous April Fool’s pranks that Rick-Rolled over into everyday life is YouTube’s 2008 efforts, where the video company replaced every link on their homepage with the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Although the original video has since been removed, I think we’ll continue to feel the effects for many years to come.
JAM Pranks
We have our very own team of pranksters here at JAM too. This year, we worked with our client, Argos Pet Insurance, to prank the nation’s animal lovers with an announcement of the launch of ‘Petflicks’, an online streaming service dedicated to our four-legged friends.
The launch followed research published by UCLAN showing that dogs prefer certain images and videos on TV, especially when they feature fellow canines. All the films were, of course, animal-related and split into genres such as ‘Doctor Dolittle’ in the Horror section, and ‘The Lady and the Tramp’ in RomComs – adorable, no? We’re not sure about you, but we wish this one wasn’t an April Fool!
We were up to no good last year too! On 1st April 2016, a hoax on behalf of our client C.K tools went down a treat. We claimed the tool company would be releasing its own line of underpants in order to tackle the problem of ‘builders’ bum’ once and for all. We’re still waiting on Justin Bieber to get in touch to model them…
Oh, and did you spot our own special JAM announcement this year? We branched into the world of condiment creation with our very own range of raspberry JAM jars. It seemed like the next logical step to celebrate our name and our creativity. It’ll be hitting the shelves soon, so have your toast at the ready.
Our creativity knows no bounds here at JAM, so get in touch with jaime@jampr.co.ukto see how we can help your brand hit the headlines all year round.
