April Fool's Day: Serious for Marketers, Silly for Everyone Else

Until recently, April Fool's Day has been one of the few holidays that belonged almost entirely to the people without much attention being paid by marketers and businesses. This is because, unlike other holidays, April Fool's Day has not necessitated the purchase of goods or services. There are no such traditions as April Fool's Day flowers, or cake, or presents, or costumes, or candy or binge drinking. April Fool's Day only ever meant that pranks were to meant to be expected and allowed people to interpret that, however they wanted.

Whether you like it or not, those April Fool's Days are over and have been for some time now. The proliferation of Social Media (and to some extent, Photoshop) has made April Fool's Day another battle for consumer attention among brands and their marketing departments. Social Media brought about this change by making it worthwhile for a brand to pull an April Fool's Day prank. All a brand has to do is broadcast something outrageous on their channels, something someone could get fired for saying on any other day, and wait for the online world to react. The intended reaction being gasps and laughs, followed by retweets, comments, and sharing. When all the dust settles, successful perpetrating marketers will have seized an opportunity to create buzz for their brand and will have positioned their brands as fun and clever in the process.

With this in mind, it is not hard to see why everyone is doing it. The following images serve as a short list of examples.

Sony has announced a new line of technology just for pets. Note the hashtag. Getting people to share is the whole point.

Virgin has unveiled its new Glass Bottomed Air Plane

Scope has created a new mouthwash flavour

It is not just the big brands trying to pull one over on us. Plenty of brands and organizations local to a certain province or city have seen the opportunity in April Fool's Day. Adrian Dix and his BC NDP have released an April Fool's Day Video with an election next month, and the Toronto Transit Commission have as well.

It seems like at this point, if you are a marketer, and you aren't trying to fool anyone today, you are not taking your job seriously enough.

Scopemouthwash.com (N.D.) Scope Bacon Mouthwash Retrieved April 1st 2013 from http://scopemouthwash.com/images/crest-products/Large/scope-bacon-mouthwash.png

The Canadian Press (April 1 2013) BC NDP Celebrates April Fool's Day with spoof of Ads of Adrian Dix, Evil Genius. Retrieved April 1 2013 from http://www.vancouversun.com/life/fashion-beauty/Democrats+April+Fools+spoof+celebrate+Adrian+evil+genius/8178809/story.html

Branson, R (April 1 2013) Virgin Launches Glass Bottom Plane. Retrieved April 1 2013 from http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cdn0.virgin.com/uploads/images/story/Virgin_Atlantic_Little_Red_Glass-bottom_plane_A320_cabin-17684-530x330.jpg

Sony Communications (April 1 2013) Sony Unveils Animalia Line of Tech Products Just for Pets. Retrieved April 1 2013, from http://d38zhw9ti31loc.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Sony-Animalia-M3-OW-KittyCans.jpg

Thomaidis, I (April 1 2013) TTC Jumps on the April Fool's Bandwagon. Retrieved April 1 2013 from http://www.torontosun.com/2013/04/01/ttc-jumps-on-the-april-fools-bandwagon