Fuelius Blog | Browse our Library of Helpful Blog Posts And Guides

The Best of April Fools' Day Marketing Campaigns

Written by Fuelius | Mar 30, 2021 10:29:00 AM

Check out our top April Fools' Day campaigns - the perfect opportunity for brands to reveal their cheeky side, engage with consumers and get people talking.

April Fools’ Day has become an increasingly popular marketing opportunity over several years.

It’s the chance for brands to reveal their cheeky side, engage with consumers, generate some chatter and generally have a little fun!

If marketers play it right, they could go viral, leading to increased brand awareness and enhanced engagement. But is it too easy to go too far?

Here are some of our favourite April Fools' Day campaigns over the years…

 

1. Halo Top reveal new fish & chips flavour ice cream

Not sure this would’ve made it to the top of our shopping lists!

 

2. New Yorkshire Tea Spreadable!

It’s the condiment you never knew you wanted until now.

 

3. Honda’s polite horn

This one’s for all the passive aggressive out there...

 

4. Heinz Creme Egg mayo

Heinz Mayo released a Creme Egg flavoured mayo – that’s apparently not an April Fools. But we’re not convinced this will be hitting the supermarket shelves anytime soon?! Though it's a clever spin on April Fool's campaigns, by using the date to create hype around a new product launch... 

Image Source: Heinz
 
5. VW to rebrand as Volts-Wagen 
 
Mistakes happen, but how you deal with the mistake can be the real test. Towards the end of March 2021, global car manufacturer Volkswagen caused a bit of a stir with a press release 'accidentally'  appearing on their website that announced they were rebranding their US-based electric vehicles to 'Voltswagen'.
 
Though it was swiftly deleted, confusion ensued as the article got picked up by social media - was it an April Fools' released too early? Though the PR team tried to keep the joke running until the big day, closer internal sources denied it. It caused quite a stir, leaving a bad taste for many... 
 
 
6. Printable money with PayPal
 
PayPal got people excited by claiming that smartphone users would be able to print money directly from their phone. Whilst printable money would be great, it'd probably be pretty illegal, too...
 

 

7. Mcdonald's gives in to weird combinations...  

To be honest, have you ever dipped a chip into your milkshake? If you're one of those that love the salty-sweet combo, you'd be buzzing to hear McDonald's was going to launch mini sauce pots of their classic milkshake flavours and be pretty disappointed only to find out it was a prank.

Got an idea for a kind of wacky product? Maybe use April Fools' Day to test the waters and gauge reaction!  

 
 
Are you planning to use April Fools' Day in your marketing campaigns? We're keeping our eyes peeled for new ideas! 👀