DigitasLBi launched a digital April Fool’s Day spot for Motorola, supposedly introducing the “#MotoSelfieStick.”
The 90-second spot plays it straight, feigning seriousness with dramatic piano music and artisans talking about their craft and what the selfie stick really means. “A selfie stick is a branch of self-expression,” says a woodworker at the beginning of the spot. “To take such a raw form and craft it into one of the most practical and useful accessories around…it’s like when the sun turns the rain into a rainbow.”
The tongue-in-cheek spot never turns its back on the mock serious tone, which pokes fun at both the selfie stick and advertising cliches. Because of this, it may be the most successful of branded April Fool’s Day videos (although it also helps that we viewed it after the barrage of such efforts). It also appears to be one of the more popular, racking up almost 400,000 views over the last several days.
Credits:
Client: Motorola Mobility LLC
North America Social Media: Jenna Rice
Global Social Media: Barbara Liss
North America Public Relations: Dawn McKenzie
Sr. Brand Comm. Manager: Katie Cowan
Agency: DigitasLBi
VP Account Director: Kevin Babcock
Creative Director: Mark Czupryna
Sr. Social Media Strategist: Matt Wolk
Sr. Producer: Kristen Hartill
Production Company: Tool
Director: Shawn Z
Managing Director – Live Action / EP: Oliver Fuselier
Chief among them, on TV at least, was Bob Barker’s return to The Price Is Right, which he retired from hosting in 2007 after more than 40 years.
At 91, Barker’s obviously moving a bit slower these days, but he still has a singular warmth and ability to connect with both the crowd and his contestants. He hosted the show’s opening bid on Wednesday and a pricing game before handing the mic back to host Drew Carrey.
There’s going to be some heavyweight marketing around the May 2 welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. And Butterfinger is jumping early into Pacquiao’s corner.
The Nestlé brand on Wednesday sent out an April Fools’ Day press release saying its Butterfinger Cups brand was betting a million on Pacquiao. Now, AdFreak confirms (as Pacquiao will do in a tweet shortly) that the bet is actually a million Butterfinger Cups. If Pacquiao emerges victorious on May 2, Butterfinger will offer 1 million of its peanut butter cups in a nationwide payout at ButterfingerCups.com.
The announcement kicks off a month-long “Get In Our Corner” campaign.
“We’re such fans of what Manny represents and love that he has such a great sense of humor to join us in our April Fools’ Day fun and launch the ‘Get In Our Corner’ campaign,” says Fabiola del Rio, Butterfinger brand manager. “We want fans to get in our corner with Manny and help us celebrate this different kind of competitor.”
T-Mobile launched an online ad for April Fool’s Day, presumably from agency of record Publicis, entitled “Pets Unleashed.”
In the ad, the wireless “uncarrier” presumes to let you “add your cat, dog, ferret, turtle or, heck, your alpaca” to your family plan for just $5 a month. After introducing the offer, the spot claims “Your carrier hates puppies. So #@$% them and switch to T-Mobile.” They then extend the joke by claiming to offer new pet-friendly apps, like Fetch Freedom, FitPet and Pet Tinder. At one point, a horse even appears to be watching zebra porn (accompanied by the small text: “Zebra porn not included. Consult stable manager for appropriate use.”) In addition to the goofy spot, there’s also a fake press release on T-Mobile’s site, and a “Pets Unleashed” page, proving the brand went all-in on the gag.
Between 1997 and 2003, you probably fell asleep to psychic Miss Cleo telling you, in her upbeat Jamaican accent, that she could predict your future during her infamous Psychic Readers Network infomercials. Now, this April Fools’ Day, the pitchwoman is back. But instead of reading tarot cards, she’s trading makeup tips.
Miss Cleo is now apparently shilling for the Benefit Cosmetics Flawless Friends Network, a hotline that compliments your look. And this time, your calls to her number, 1-844-SO-FLAWLESS, won’t cost you $9.95 a minute. While she gets it makes fun of her most famous role, she’s totally on board with the prank.
“Laughter is truly the best healer,” she tells AdFreak. “It’s the best way to celebrate. I love to laugh. I think that if anybody takes themselves too seriously, you run the risk of missing out on a lot of wonderful things.”
Don’t believe her? You can also hear testimonials from Shannen Doherty and Joey Lawrence, who make cameos in the ad. (As for me, I’m a firm believer in Miss Cleo’s predictive power. The psychic told me I’m a sensitive soul on my third life, which gives me the ability to take a concept and make it happen at top-level quality. Totally true.)
Video Production Team Producer: Danny Skarka Scriptwriter: Brandon Snider Postproduction Supervisor: Blake Padilla Motion Graphics: Jimmy Giliberti Los Angeles Director of Photography: Lew Abramson Los Angeles Audio: Tom Curley Miami Director of Photography: Gianfranco Bianchi Miami Audio: Jeff Alex Thomas Editor: Loren Sorensen
Hotline Production Scriptwriter: Janie Stolar Sound Engineer: Dexter Paulino
Talent: Cleo Harris, Shannen Doherty, Joey Lawrence
Hotline created by IfByPhone, Chicago Recorded at Aesthesia Studio, Los Angeles; Graphographics, Miami Edited at DigitalCore, San Francisco
It’s the first day of April, and everyone is reluctant to click links for fear of getting Rickrolled, sent to an old website from the ’90s or even—gasp!—finding a fake product from a brand.
The latter is particularly loathesome, according to people on Twitter who hate to see brands have any fun whatsoever. It’s so tiresome and clichéd, these folks claim (a complaint that itself might be a bit tiresome and clichéd).
Take a look below at this motley crew of pitchfork-carrying villagers who won’t rest until the brands stop trying to engage with them.
It all started out friendly enough…
i know april first is coming up #brands but think long and hard before doing anything about it ok just a friendly suggestion
BBDO New York released two online spots designed to function as April Fool’s Day related extensions of the brand’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign.
That connection, though, is a bit of a stretch. The two ads both follow April Fool’s Day pranks that go too far, followed by the message, “If you take April Fools this far, you might be hungry.” We’re not sure how being hungry translates to over the top pranking exactly, other than wanting to tailor the theme to the existing message. At any rate, in “Bedtime” a woman sets up a camera to document her prank on her significant other, which involves hiding a large snake under the covers and calling him to bed. Another spot sees a boy plugging his guitar into a large amp set up directly across from a slumbering grandmother. Clearly both of these pranks are not only ill advised, but could result in heart attacks. It can’t help but remind us of a certain other April Fool’s Day prank that went too far.
The best April Fools’ Day gag products are the ones that leave you wondering why it’s not already a real thing.
That’s definitely the case with Tinder for Uber (and its partner site, Uber for Tinder), a partnership between two of the moment’s most popular mobile apps.
The supposed service lets you swipe your way to a romantic rendezvous by finding a match on Tinder and then each booking Uber rides to go meet in the middle. I’m sure there are already affair-planning sites that offer something similar, though for the sake of my search history and my marriage, I’m not going to Google that one.
April Fools’ Day is one of my favorite advertising holidays. It’s a magical day when brands manage to be smart, relevant and amusing on their smallest budgets of the year. It’s a lesson we could all learn, year round.
With a few exceptions like Google (including YouTube), Virgin and ThinkGeek, which have practically built the day into their business model, most brands are tossing a pittance of their marketing budget toward a daylong prank, just for the fool of it. And there’s something beautifully foolish in that, don’t you think?
See this year’s roundup below. We’ll be updating this story throughout the day. Yee-haw!
This year, all the usual brand suspects are joined by a host of tech companies and startups in trying to throw you for a loop—a near impossibility these days. And in an odd move, American Eagle Outfitters pranked us an entire week early.
Stay tuned. We'll be updating this list throughout the day.
UPDATE (4:37 p.m. ET): Here are still more. Scroll down to see the earlier ones.
• Lego The toy brand is delivering its new Ninja Turtles set via live turtles.
• Honda The automaker creates the world's first DIY car.
• Sam Adams The brewer releases HeliYum, the world's first helium-carbonated beer.
• Lil BUB The celebrity cat introduces her twin.
• Moshi The computer accessory maker has invented MouseBolt, the first live-mouse-based charger.
• House of Cards The Netflix show gave everyone a sneak peak of Season 3 with a script page on Facebook.
• Netflix Watch Bacon sizzle with Netflix's new original series, Sizzling Bacon. If it's half as popular as Fireplace for Your Home, they've got a winner:
UPDATE (2:59 p.m. ET): Here are a bunch more. Scroll down to see the earlier ones.
• Bonobos The apparel company created TechStyle—wearable tech-clothing that connects you socially to a psychopathic artificial intelligence.
• Denny's In a surprising, press-getting twist, the restaurant opted out of April Fools' Day altogether.
• WestJet The airline is converting to "metric time" to be even more Canadian.
• RedBox The DVD rental company created Mood Match, which lets you auto-match your movie selection to your mood. Dissapointed that it's fake? Get 50 cents off today with the code Aprilfools.
• Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand Ad agency creates an app to help clients fire their agency.
• Samsung and HTC Bothbrands have made fake wearable tech gloves. HTC won this battle.
• American Well The telehealth firm has introduced Puppy Connect, which lets you connect to puppies to improve your health. Aww, puppies.
• Captain Morgan Hopefully this Taco Rum is fake, although Chrissy Teigen says she's not opposed.
The original list is below: • Google Linked off the Google homepage this morning is the Auto Awesome Photobombs app for Google+, which lets you insert David Hasselhoff into any photo.
• American Eagle Outfitters Charging out of the gates last week, American Eagle announced American Beagle Outfitters, a new clothing line for dogs, complete with a dogumentary.
• Cheetos Spokescheetah Chester released his new fragrance, Cheeteau. They took it a step further by actually making a few bottles of the stuff, and sent one to AdFreak. It reeks, and not in a good way. In New York City today? Try it yourself on Madison Avenue between 59th and 61st Streets.
• YouTube The video site announces the absurd viral trends for the rest of the year.
• Reddit "Headdit" lets you navigate Reddit with your head. Includes special cat mode.
• Publicis Seattle The agency has created Brand Drops, the world's first branded aromatic rain. They turn a rainy day into the ultimate out-of-home, multisensory brand experience.
• Qless This startup has created Line Ringer, an app that scans for the cellphone numbers of the people ahead of you in line and calls them with fake emergencies that force them to sacrifice their place. I wish it was real.
• Fresh Direct The food-delivery company is offering eagle-caught salmon sustainably harvested in the wilds of upstate New York.
• Google Maps Compete to become the world's best Pokémon master and win a job at Google Maps. OK, the job doesn't exist, but you can download the app and find the missing Pokémon.
• Gmail Google's mail app has created "sharable selfie" themes for your Gmail inbox—or as they're calling them, Shelfies. And … they're claiming they invented the term "selfie." Again, it's not fully a joke, as you can now set your Gmail box to show other people's Shelfies.
• Orbotix Speaking of selfies, Orbotix, maker of the Sphero ball toy, has invented a tiny hovering drone called the selfie bot, so you can take selfies every second of the day.
• Google Japan Check out the Magic Hand, a joystick that replaces your hand with a robotic hand. Just another example of Chindogu.
• Nest The home automation company teams with Virgin America to create Total Temperature Control for every seat on Virgin, introduced by Tony Fadell and Sir Richard Branson.
• Virgin Active The Smarty Pants are underwear with a built-in meter to count your every glute flex and ensure your rump is in tip-top twerking shape.
• Waze How do I love thee? Count the ways with new WazeDates. Because honking only takes you so far.
• National Geographic Channel The channel will be running some of its classic programs with new audio courtesy of RiffTrax. This will probably seem more prank-like if you're flipping through and have no clue why the honeybadger is mouthing off again.
• The Pirate Bay A special device will embrace your entire mind and upload Pirate Bay's content directly into your brain.
• Ely, Minnesota The April Fools'-loving city is launching The Ely Channel, featuring great TLC-inspired shows like Sauna Wars, The Real Housewives of St. Louis County and Iron Range Chef.
• BMW Introducing the Ultimate Sleeping Machine. BMW is old hat at this, so hats off for another super cute prank.
• JetBlue In an anti-prank, JetBlue is again giving free fares to people whose birthdays are April 1.
• CafePress The site has launched CafePredict. In conjunction with the NSA, it'll ship you items before you order them.
• Reyka Vodka A lava rock drinking-water filter.
• Chili's The restaurant chain has put everything you love about Chili's in an ice cream. Try Nacho Queso Crunch, Baby Back Chunk and Buffalo Brownie Sundae. Because there's a pregnant lady somewhere.
• Life at Google Try out Google Resume Auto-Awesome (actually not that awesome).
• Rosetta Stone The language software company now lets you Learn to Speak Klingon. It's another product some people would actually buy. Plus, they got Worf himself, Michael Dorn, to star in the video.
YouTube is going all out for April Fools' Day today, revealing which outlandish trends will go viral for the remainder of the year—based on the premise that YouTube itself masterminds the site's biggest viral videos, trends and memes, like Gangnam Style, the Harlem Shake and Rebecca Black's "Friday."
"Here at YouTube HQ, we write, shoot, and upload all of the world's most popular viral videos. Here's a sneak peek at what you'll be watching in 2014," the site says.
The trends include:
• Clocking: The new planking! Hold your arms in the shape of the time in a public place. The longer you tick the cooler it is.
• Glub Glub Water Dance: An originally produced and choreographed song and dance, the Glub Glub Water Dance involves pouring water on yourself while flapping your arms and spitting out the water.
• Kissing Dad: Catch your dad's reaction on camera after you give him a smooch on the cheek or head. Celebrate kissing your dad once you're done!
YouTube is also inviting people to submit their viral trend ideas. It will pick three of them and create videos in real time for those trends from the YouTube Space LA.
Actually, Clocking probably will go viral after this.
JetBlue and its ad agency, Mullen, celebrated April Fools' Day with a payout instead of a prank. For the "April's No Fool" promotion, the airline actually offered to refund the entire fare (as a JetBlue credit) of anyone named April who happened to fly JetBlue on April 1. The carrier quoted its very own April—director of media relations April Dinwoodie—in the announcement. "April 1 isn't always fun and games for everyone," she said. "For many of us, it represents an annual tradition of mockery. We're thrilled to take a moment and do something for those customers that might not look forward to starting their month with a day of teasing." Poor Dinwoodie's life of teasing wasn't for naught, as it delivered a fun insight that drove this neat little promotion, causing excitement for Aprils all over Facebook. And yes, they really, actually, truly did give the money back.
Check out 42 other branded April Fools' efforts here.
It should be the quintessential YouTube video: Funny Baby Panda Kiss. But when you tried to watch it, all you got was an infinite pre-roll ad loop. Because Rhett and Link wanted to trick you for April Fools' Day. The gag ads take what should be a nightmare scenario of never-ending, low-budget marketing and turn it into a good comedy bit. South Carolina's tourism board, for example, wants you to come pan a river for loose change and teeth in "the underbelly of North Carolina." Or if you're a lonely widower in your golden years, forget finding a late-life companion. Get a roommate with benefits at the Silver Manor retirement home. Because fake commercials are usually more honest than real ones.
Retailers and advertising agencies started their April Fool’s campaigns early this year for much the same reason that they front-run Christmas and Super Bowl campaigns: the ability of social media to convey and amplify marketing messages.
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
