There are three times of year that big companies like to advertise, create and milk out as much profit from the specific season as possible. Christmas and Super Bowl Sunday are the obvious two. But as a society where communication through connectivity is our favorite pastime and where the majority of things to do outside can be done within the rectangular dimensions of a computer screen, giant corporations can turn the most obscure holidays into a celebration of capitalistic mischief.
April Fool’s Day like many people who celebrate it, first began by pranking another person, or in this case, holiday. Before the 16th century, New Year’s Day was celebrated on the week of March 25th to April 1st. A French calendar company then began to print calendars with the beginning of the new year as January 1st. As the new New Year Day began to catch on around France and eventually around the world, the April 1st New Year Day became a joke only remembered by stubborn people who weren’t willing to change the date of their astrological holidays. As old New Year’s Day people celebrated on April 1st, new New Year’s Day Frenchmen dubbed those celebrating as Poisson d’Avril or “April Fish.” A few mistranslations later, and the name April Fool for April Fool’s Day stumbled its way to existence. Today, we know April Fool’s Day as that one day our stupid friends play dumb pranks on us.
April Fool’s Day is a pretty insignificant holiday, but businesses have decided to name this single day the day where all of the big brands unleash a cornucopia of unconventional and accidentally revolutionary hoaxes for us to enjoy. This “holiday” has gotten so much attention in the last few years that many companies begin to think about the day months in advance.
As stated before, many companies participate in this scam and the majority of these pranks spreads through the internet like a plague. Google is one of the largest suspects as many of its factions create a new April Fool’s Day prank. This year alone, Google released many silly new products ranging from “Elgoog,” a backwards version of the popular search engine to “Google Panda,” stuffed toys that answer all of your questions. However, Google Maps takes the cake for the greatest prank of all. In desktop versions of the tool, users could change the map background into the familiar blue and black Pac-Man background and have the ability to play on it. The feature only lasted a few days though, so chances are you probably already missed it.
Netflix released “Shower,” a company-made movie warning about the side effects of “binge-watching,” something everyone that uses Netfilx does. Honda released a new car that takes selfies for you while you drive. Insurance, a car insurance company, introduced a machine that can predict when you will have an accident.
For some odd reason, this large marketing scheme usually works to a massive scale. Google Maps saw a near 200% increase in network traffic, Netflix’s movie hit most popular on its site, and Honda’s car video has been seen by millions over the internet. Next year, instead of pranking your friends for April Fool’s Day, try staying indoors and combing the internet for the best corporate marketing pranks.