The One Reason So Many Brand Pranks On April Fools Day Failed This Year

Storytelling Lessons From Ali Wong's Netflix Comedy Special

This fascinating visual essay from the team of techno-journalists at The Pudding dissects Ali Wong's comedy special to uncover the storytelling structure she uses. Read this to become a better storyteller yourself.

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Why Are Most Branded April Fools Day Pranks So Bad?

Despite the occasional clever idea (like Tinder's height-verification program), this article notes that the April Fools Day pranks from brands this year were generally lacking. An overall atmosphere of skepticism fueled by fake news may be the reason. McDonald's disappointed customers with their pickle burger. There was a sad version of headphones made from ramen noodles. Roku created a pet-friendly remote control and Lego launched a FindMyBrick app to let people locate lost pieces.

Most fizzled for the same reason: their "pranks" were actually things people would have loved to be real.

And so there was a predictable backlash from duped consumers who really really wanted those fake products and services to have been actual launches. The brands that avoided this trap were the ones who used a joke to introduce an actual product. Burger King, for example, cleverly fake launched the "Impossible Whopper" made with vegan "meat" - and then admitted it was real. And of course our silly little Naan-Obvious joke helped us to launch our real book series.

It just goes to show humor can still work with marketing, as long as you're giving people something they really want and not just teasing them. Otherwise, it's probably just naansense. :-)