Australians have long used April Fool’s Day to prank, con, and bewilder their loved ones.
But here at SmartCompany, we’d like to inaugurate a new April Fool’s tradition: the ceremonial, next-day round-up of corporate goofs and gags, allowing future generations to understand what marketing teams deemed funny in years gone by.
As businesses contend with thin operating margins and consumer sentiment in the doldrums, 2024 may have brought fewer social media posts and staged PR releases than we’ve come to expect.
Nevertheless, here are a few of the April Fool’s stunts that caught our eye this year.
Behold: the footlong fairy bread sub, a tooth-achingly sweet prank concocted by Subway and transmitted by PR agency Aruga.
A promotional copy attached to the prank positioned it as a post-Easter alternative to hot cross buns, riffing on the childhood party treat.
It seems unlikely the announcement fooled any hungry patrons, but if you were one of the franchisees who had to explain to a customer why they couldn’t buy 30.5 centimentres of simple carbohydrates, please contact us.
There are big brands, and there are small brands, and then there are small brands that go even smaller to pretend they’re massive.
Confused? Consider this little-big post effort from Refilled, the Sydney-founded startup that offers users a sustainable alternative to traditional soft drink vending machines.
It created a miniature billboard and used some nifty forced perspective to re-imagine the famous King’s Cross Coca-Cola sign.
The brand immediately gave away the prank, saving anyone from really believing it had co-opted one of the most significant billboards in the country.
Nevertheless, we feel the brand deserves props for actually creating a detailed model for the endeavour.
An honourable mention goes to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which is neither a business nor an organisation traditionally associated with ‘fun’, but executed a successful April Fool’s prank.
It pretended to offer a line of official merchandise, including slogans like ‘Live, Graph, Love’, and ‘Another day, another correlay’.
Data wonks nationwide latched on to the social media joke, urging the organisation to make the merchandise a reality.
Beyond the real products it sells, and the financial proceeds that end up in the hands of charity, almost everything about Who Gives A Crap is joke-adjacent.
Its April Fool’s pledge to deliver a roll of toilet paper to Uranus is no different.
Australian-born clothing brand Bonds may have shuttered most of its domestic manufacturing capacity, but it still understands the needs of the local community, as evidenced by its April Fool’s pledge to offer a single sock at a time.
@bondsau Have you been a victim of the lost sock? Introducing The Odd Sock, a single Logo Sock to help with the lonely sock epidemic that touches us all. Available exclusively online and in our Bonds stores, shop The Odd Sock. #bondsaus #socks #oddsocks #newproductlaunch #theoddsock
Health-conscious consumers will give just about anything a try if they believe it will improve their ‘wellness’.
Nutra Organics pushed this idea to its limits with its ‘new’ grass-flavoured herbal concoction.
Airtasker’s April Fool’s pitch is a dating app that connects people based on the household chores they like to do.
Labour of love, indeed.
Menswear chain yd. used April Fool’s Day to ask the question: what would happen if we cut 33% of our three-character name?
It introduced its new brand identity, ‘d.’, offering a streamlined and right-sized name for the modern consumer.
SmartCompany is unaware of any shopping centre signs actually being mutilated in service of this joke, but is keeping an eye out, just in case.
Bee2, a purveyor of manuka honey products, pretended to roll out its own honey-infused beer, lovingly labeled as ‘bee-r’.
“This innovative brew combines the crisp, clean taste of a classic lager with the rich, velvety notes of manuka honey from Australia,” states the promotional copy for the imaginary drop.
One wonders what would stop Bee2 from rolling out its own range of mead instead.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
