For many tricksters, April 1 is an excellent day to have a bit of good-natured fun—and brands are no exception. (Fun fact: The team at RLF has a soft spot for April Fools’ Day because that’s the day our company was founded 18 years ago!)
Oftentimes an opportunity to garner positive PR and showcase personality (looking at you, Tinder’s VP of Ghosting job opening and the Empire State Building’s incoming Rainforest Cafe joke that became so popular it turned into a pop-up reality), April Fools’ fun also opens up the chance for mishap and mayhem when companies fail to read the room and their prank doesn’t quite land.
Keep reading for a few of our favorite April Fools’ Day flops over the years—and what brands hoping to tickle their audiences’ funny bones can take away as they plan purposeful pranks that find the perfect balance between silly, brand authentic and non-offensive. The gist: Whatever your prank, ensure it doesn’t lose trust and credibility with your consumers. Happy April Fools’!
X, Formally Known as Twitter
X-posing people’s private drafts and DMs isn’t quite what people have in mind as funny. X posted from its account last year that it would “continue to celebrate transparency on this platform” by making all DMs and drafts public. Cue the panic!
PR Takeaway: Don’t undermine core values, such as privacy, and consider potential reactions in advance. This X prank turns a sensitive issue into a joke and risks damaging X users’ trust in the platform.
Hooters Restaurant
Do you know what’s not a hoot and a half? Getting sued for a prank. On April 1, 2001, Hooters hosted a beer sales contest for its workers, teasing that the winner would receive a Toyota grand prize. When the server who came in first place and was led out into the parking lot and handed a toy Yoda rather than a car, she took it to court for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation. It’s safe to say she won enough cash from the settlement to shop for whatever Toyota she wanted.
PR Takeaway: This prank-turned-lawsuit emphasizes how crucial clear communication is for any organization. In addition to customers finding dishonestly unethical, it can also be illegal.
Volkswagen
Really driving a joke into the ground was Volkswagen’s 2021 gag that the German automaker was swapping its name to ‘Voltswagen’ as an ode to its electrical and environmental efforts. After numerous journalists spent a lot of time attempting to cover the name update, and many of VW’s own internal communications team provided conflicting answers as to whether the new title was legit—it turned out the whole thing was a prank gone too far.
PR Takeaway: The lesson here is two-fold: Stay on the same page with your internal team when it comes to communications messaging and major updates; and don’t get on journalists’ bad side.
No joke here: RLF is well-versed in coming alongside clients to create a compelling communications strategy—sans the communications crisis. Reach out to monty@rlfcommunications.com to work with us!
By: Anna Beth Adcock
