Social media has made it easier to spread April Fools’ Day jokes, especially by corporations. It’s become common for companies to use social media platforms such as Instagram or X to pull pranks on consumers. They might claim to launch a new campaign, product, or service, and it is almost always painfully obvious that it’s a prank. According to Forbes, companies do this as a way to “…create attention around a product or service and show a brand has personality – something that has grown increasingly important for brands in the age of social media.” It appears to be a way for companies to define themselves as a distinct and memorable brand in the hopes that consumers will purchase their products or services. These pranks have even gone wrong, such as when Elon Musk announced that Tesla was going bankrupt back in 2018. This trend of massive corporations attempting to appeal to the public through cringe-worthy jokes has become, in my opinion, way too overdone.
The first April Fools’ prank I saw from a corporation was from Dunkin’. They posted, in Notes app apology style, an announcement that they were changing their name to “Donuts” on April 1. The post reads, “now we’re just DONUTS’. we will have coffee still. pls don’t ask any other questions. just going thru it rn.” Now don’t get me wrong, I love Dunkin’. I frequent my local Dunkin’ once or twice a week, but all this announcement did was make me annoyed. The lack of a formal graphic to display the information and the texting slang used throughout make it so clearly a joke. I would like to think people didn’t fall for this very unconvincing prank.
The next joke that I saw was from Amtrak. They posted on X that they were introducing a train car for “emotional baggage,” which refers to a person’s struggles with emotions or any type of psychological pain. They also encouraged users to tag a friend who might need a ride in that car. I will give credit that the joke seems to come from a positive place, but it’s a little obvious that the photo they included is edited, which detracts from its credibility. However, this prank is far more believable than the Dunkin’ one in my opinion. Definitely not the worst one I’ve ever seen.
Finally, Tinder decided to join in on the pranks. They posted a job listing for a “Vice President of Ghost Hunting.” Attempting to follow the link now leads to a web page saying the position has since been filled. This role would apparently aim to crack down on “ghosting,” or when a potential partner stops answering a person’s message without saying anything. The job requirements included having been ghosted in a previous relationship and references that would actually text you back. This is so very not a legitimate job listing as evidenced by the position title and the requirements; even though ghosting is a very real part of online dating (I say as the ghosted and the ghost).
It is unlikely that we will see a decrease in these corporate April Fools pranks in the future. In such a competitive marketing world, I anticipate these pranks getting even more outlandish and unbelievable.