Marketoonist | Tom Fishburne

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.

april fools

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Marketers have long embraced April Fool’s Day (a few years ago, a colleague of mine sent a Canadian coworker a realistic deportation letter from the INS).

But lately, more and more marketers have been taking April Fool’s to consumers. Brand hoaxes can be great ways to connect to audiences with humor. They are also risky because they can so easily backfire.

Google is the master of April Fool’s. My all-time favorite brand hoax is last year’s Google Maps prank, where they introduced a working 8-bit version of Google Maps developed for the old-school Nintendo Entertainment System.

So far this year, there have been a couple early releases. American Eagle introduced a very funny new product, the AEO Skinny Skinny jeans, “our skinniest skinny jeans ever”. The product is a can of spray paint to “spray on” the jeans.

P&G launched new Bacon-flavored Scope mouthwash, “for breath that sizzles”.

I’m posting this on March 31 and would love to hear your thoughts on the best (and worst) brand hoaxes for this year’s April Fool’s.

(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away one signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. I’ll pick one comment. Thanks!)

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12 Comments

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  1. April Fools campaigns not only allow ad agencies to come up with some hilariously memorable products for brands, it could very well lead to a product that should actually exist. And by that I mean the spray on skinny skinny jeans.

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  3. Great cartoon again Tom! Will be interested to see what April Fool’s hoaxes are gathered here in the comment …

    One of the greatest features of the brand hoax is that by definition it’s not trying to market any particular product or service to you. The only thing that is showcased (or not!) is the creativity and innovative capacity of the business. As you say, it can go badly wrong, but when executed well with relevance and wit it adds significant ‘cultural capital’ to the business.

    Too early to pick one from this year, although Google has again created something fresh. However, my all-time favourite was from the UK broadsheet newspaper, The Guardian. Published in 1977 it was a travel supplement for the islands of Sans Serriffe – I wish I kept a copy! http://www.guardian.co.uk/gnmeducationcentre/archive-educational-resource-april-2012

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  6. You may instruct me to get a life, but I need somebody to guide me on how do I associate serious business and jokes. It just does not seat well with me. I work for radio and people take whatbwe saunas gospel truth. In the same industry’s have a Radio that hired a comedian as a breakfast show presenter and I just for the life of me can’t take the guy serious at all. All these kind of things are social and not commercial.

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  12. Hi all,

    I LOVED all of theses examples. Many thanks. This week’s print goes to Hugh Griffiths. The 1977 Guardian spoof is an awesome pre-Internet example!

    Thanks,

    -Tom

    Reply

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Tom Fishburne is the Founder and CEO of Marketoonist, a content marketing studio that helps businesses reach their audiences with cartoons.

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