The instability of creative content, marketing, and ads on April 1 fascinates me. April Fool’s Day is powerfully silly, a “day of note” that controls the tone of online content in the Western calendar—especially when it comes to ads1.
Think about it. We’re inundated with ads and promotional content for events throughout the year: Valentines Day, St Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Pride festivals, Hallowe’en (and so many others). When we see an ad during those times that doesn’t match the theme, we assume the company just isn’t involved. They get a pass.
This influx of promotional content is even more so for the big “real” holidays2: New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Even if companies don’t have any reason to focus on the day, they’ll still fit the theme into their ads. Participating can only be a good thing. Why give up a chance to make a sale and build a brand during those social and spend-heavy times?
But April First is different. April Fool’s Day ads are dangerous to brand authority and marketing plans, and companies can’t do anything to fight it.
The inherent implications of ads on April 1
If a company runs a new ad on April 1, uploads new content to their channels and feeds, does literally anything different on the day that marks the beginning of the second quarter of the year—it’s an April Fool’s Day joke, whether they mean it to be or not. Unlike other notable days that don’t align with the company image, ignoring April 1 doesn’t work.
Brands that want to maintain a serious reputation can’t just announce their updated model release the day after March 31. Content creators who want to try something different and share their excitement with their audience can’t just say “no really, this isn’t a joke” and expect to be believed.
Brand trust and loyalty do not exist on April 1. These important marketing tools are impossible to apply because of the very nature of the day: once bitten, twice shy. Anyone who has been at the receiving end of an April Fool’s Day prank and hasn’t enjoyed it becomes wary. And anyone who enjoys April Fool’s Day hoaxes still does so with a suspicious mind. It doesn’t matter if the trick isn’t mean, no one wants to be made a fool of—but it’s fun to catch out someone trying to fool you. So if brands produce status quo content, it fails in favour of the ridiculous. And if brands produce novel content, it succumbs to the surreal expectations of the day.
Nothing is real, nothing is serious, nothing matters in marketing on April 1: all online ads are April Fool’s Day jokes. So every year I look forward to what brands who understand that will do with it. And I look forward even more to reading what online consumers say in response to companies that try and rise above it.