April Fools VW, Google, Burger King, Microsoft and Co.

Hannover. April Fools’ Day is one such thing: not everyone can laugh about it, and some even embarrass them. Nevertheless, on April 1st of each year, numerous companies make fun of punching their customers in the butt. Overview of successful campaigns in recent years (un).

Voltwagen: April causes VW trouble with stupid comedy

Volkswagen turned this year’s failed variant into an April Fool’s joke. The carmaker wanted to focus on its attack on electromobility, as the company in the United States is said to have renamed itself “Volvo Wagon”. The shot backfired. Especially in the United States, where Volkswagen already has a dilapidated image due to the diesel scandal, criticism of Marketing Cock has rained down. The fact that April Fool’s comedy started so quickly didn’t make things better. VW was compelled to put an end to the comedy and publicly apologize for the misconduct before April 1, 2021.

Burger King April Fools’ Day Comedy: Wopper Toothpaste

Burger lovers may have been excited about the #whopperfresh Burger King campaign three years ago – at least for a short time until the next day’s campaign is canceled. The fast food chain has announced its own toothpaste, which should enhance the unique flavor of the flame-roasted beef, tomatoes, onions and co while brushing your teeth. According to Burger King, toothpaste should only go through a short test phase and then be available on all branches. The marketing team even came up with their own business for in-toothpaste:

Burger King April Fool’s Comedy Number Two: Wopper for left-handed players

Toothpaste comedy is not the only laughing stock of the burger roster: In early 1998, Burger King deceived many bad customers, saying the chain was a “voper for left-handed players.” At the time, USA Today printed a full page of April Fool’s jokes. The burger should contain the same ingredients as normal waffle, except for the tomatoes, meatballs and co. Rotate 180 degrees.

BBC April Fools’ Classic: Sparrow-e (R) ND

Already a bit old, but always good: especially the memorable duck is the BBC’s contribution to the tumultuous harvest at Ticino. In a 1957 television report, women were shown chewing wood and then drying in the sun. This contribution, which was aggressively and documented, was then used by thousands of people to call the BBC and find out how the cultivation of hemp in the home garden works.

April Fool’s Joke by Ritter Sport: Special Edition with Med

Long awaited by many chocolate fans and finally fulfilled in 2014: Med Chocolate from Ritter Sport. This is at least the chocolate maker that has teamed up with sausage maker Ragonwalter Muhle for this purpose. According to Ritter Sport at the time, the limited edition can now be ordered via Webshop.

In the following years, Ritter Sport continued with the April campaigns. For example, in 2015, following the “Ritter Sport 3-D Printer for Home”, in 2016 the world’s finest chocolate with golden leaf, saffron fibers and fragrant mushroom cream for food.

Munich Police April Fool’s Comedy: Police Officer Dating

Colleagues from the Munich Police Department who announced their own police application on April 1, 2017 were also creative. The application promised a “swipe to the police partner” and tried to encourage the police and citizens to date and get to know each other. There should also be a free handcuff package for the top ten downloads.

Google April Fools’ Day: Google Gulp and the perfect hummus

Google’s April Fools joke was a disgrace, and in 2016 one of them had to be replaced even after protests. And then more.

In 2005, they wanted to convince users through “Google Gulp” that the company had invented a drink that could enhance users’ intelligence. In 2013, the search engine terrified its users with the message “Google is deleting YouTube.” Because information can be stored in the cloud. In order to be able to suggest the right hummus recipe in the search results, Google has finally had the opportunity to understand how the individual user’s personal taste buds work.

On the other hand, April Fool’s Humor 2016 caused trouble. Google has changed the “Send and Save” button in Gmail to “Send and Drop Mic”. Attached to an animated GIF mail is a minion that lowers a microphone at the end of a message. The same year the comedy was based on Barack Obama’s famous “Mike Drop”. However, many users do not find this fun after accidentally pressing the button for sensitive emails such as cover users. The company then received so much criticism on social media that Google removed the button again.

April Fools from Microsoft: The company was suspended in 2019

Like Google and other tech companies, Microsoft is not usually into humorous contributions on April 1st. For example, this includes an upgraded Outlook service that allows emails to be sent as letters by delivery truck. Or the “Shake to save” function on the cell phone, which allows users to save their data by tapping it on OneTrive, a cloud storage service. There has even been a separate office version for cats in recent years.

However, in 2019, the marketing department did not contribute to the April Fool’s joke – in an internal note to his staff from Chris Caposela, he said that the actions of recent years have not had a positive effect on the company. It remains to be seen if there will be another April Fool’s joke from Microsoft this year.

April 1: Where does the April Fool’s joke come from?

It is not yet clear where the tradition of April Fool’s comedy comes from. Various historical traditions serve as an interpretation, none of which are considered to have an official origin.

On the other hand, it is relatively certain that the phrase “send someone to April” first appeared in Germany in the early 17th century. The term “April fool’s joke” was common only in the second half of the 19th century.

In other European countries, April 1 has established itself as a day of fabricated stories intended to deceive others. This tradition finally came to North America through immigrants, where “April Fools’ Day” is a tradition that was mainly confirmed by various media.