April Fools’ Day – the annual prank-based celebration is a marketer’s dream, providing brands with an unmissable opportunity to show another side of their personality.
The opportunity to create spoof ad campaigns, products and news articles is something which many brands find hard to resist. While this temporary freedom from strict brand guidelines can be a source of great joy and creativity, April Fools’ stunts can also cause issues of their own.
While many brands relish having a license to mislead customers for one day of the year, it can be a hard balance to get right – with some brands going either too far or not far enough, leaving consumers annoyed, angry or simply confused.
(Personally, I’m still smarting from ‘Lolos’ – the calorie-free Rolos I saw advertised in the early 90s and only realised were an April Fools’ joke after looking for them in the shops…)
Here’s our round-up of the best – or the worst, depending on your opinion – April Fools’ Day pranks of 2023.
Gimme five (or four and a thumb)
Today, KitKat has unveiled its latest innovation – the five-finger bar. The classic four-finger snack has been given an upgrade, with the addition of a KitKat thumb.
To honour the momentous occasion and show commitment to the new handy shape, the brand is changing its iconic tagline. ‘Have a Break, have a KitKat’ is being replaced with ‘Take five! Take a KitKat’, signalling the dawn of a new, thumb-filled era.
“This twist on our classic KitKat has been years in the making, so we are thrilled to finally share our prized five-fingered KitKat,” said KitKat head of innovative twists, Katherine Barr.
“As fans of the brand know, our bar comes in two and four-finger varieties, so we thought, why not make a full fist of it? We like to call the fifth finger in our KitKat the thumb, and we have to hand it to ourselves, we think we’ve scored a winner here.”
Chicken and (tortilla) chips
Burger King has teamed up with Doritos Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries for a limited-edition launch that sees the legendary tortilla chip meet Burger King’s fan favourite side.
Taking a juicy chicken strip and coating it in crushed Doritos the new combo is expected to be a taste sensation, following hot on the heels of the Flame-Grilled Whopper flavour Doritos which launched earlier this month.
Fans would be fools to miss out on the epic new Chicken Fries flavour, so keep eyes peeled for this unbelievable new side landing on the Burger King app and in restaurants soon.
Drone and deliver
A new takeway service from Frankie & Benny’s is taking rapid food delivery to the next level as the family-friendly restaurant goes on a mission to ensure everyone can get their favourite Frankie’s dishes, wherever they are.Peckish on the way home? Get Frankie’s via the drone. Hangry and stuck in a traffic jam? Get comfort food sent straight to the motorway.
Plant-based bacon brand gets meaty
La Vie has become the first plant-based brand to venture into the meat market, announcing an entirely new offering, La Mort, as it positions itself as a key player in the non-vegan market.
After having its motives questioned for creating a product so similar to meat for some time now, La Vie is fed up with defending itself for replicating what makes meat so delicious. Growing tired of the backlash and speculation, La Vie has decided that if you can’t beat them, join them.
“Just look at the numbers: 99% of the meat consumed today is of animal origin,” said CEO Nicolas Schweitzer.
“For us, launching La Mort is a no-brainer. The advantage is that 80 billion animals are killed each year for this industry: say goodbye to raw material shortage!”
Mix your own wine
Due to the growing popularity of rosé wine, Waitrose is introducing a new mix your own rosé called Merlonay.
“Rosé wine preference is really individual, so we have created this fool-proof bottle so everyone can enjoy it as pink or pale as they like,” said Waitrose wine buyer, Rose Blague.
“We recommend mixing 10ml of red wine with 165ml of white wine for a delicate Provençal pink, or 65ml of red wine with 100ml of white wine for a deep-coloured rosé wine.”
One small step for Gousto…
Direct-to-consumer meal kit Gousto has launched a new recipe box – the ‘Gousto Xtreme’ – for space travellers, deep-sea divers and jungle explorers.
Gousto’s food and tech experts have created a vacuum sealing technology that is being created and tested for space travel and deep-sea diving, to keep meals fresh in the most extreme of circumstances.
Rolling out this year, the technology will allow astronauts to slurp up cosmic spaghetti among the planets, while deep sea divers enjoy a classic cheeseburger in the murky depths.
It’s just rabbit food
Plant-based meat alternative brand Moving Mountains is hopping into rabbit food with ‘Bunny Sized Burger Bites’.
For years, consumers have been asking for vegan rabbit food, with some even confusing Moving Mountains products for rabbit food, but the brand was unable to help. Now the brand is giving in to public demand and offering bunnies across the UK the chance to enjoy delicious mini pellet versions of the iconic Moving Mountains plant-based burger.
“All of our consumer research pointed to the need for vegan burgers to be rabbit food, so this launch was a an obvious one to fill that consumer need,” said head of marketing Eloise Bristow.
“The need for our delicious burgers to be enjoyed by bunnies is a consumer pain point we simply could no longer ignore, so we couldn’t be more excited to finally give the people what they’ve always asked for.”
The new launch joins the existing range so humans and their pets can be taken on an ear-resistible flavour journey together.
Smells like dinner
Vegetable accompaniments brand, Mash Direct, has launched a perfume collection featuring the unmistakable scents of its bestselling dishes.
Smelling exactly as they taste, shoppers will be able to take the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ to a whole new level by wearing their favourite vegetable, from cabbage to beetroot!
“Everyone loves the smell of food so it made sense to bottle our delicious vegetable side dishes up in to something that can last much longer than a meal time,” said head of marketing Clare Forster.
Expected to be a love or hate product, Mash Direct is excited to see what consumers make of their new fragrance range.
Satisfy those plastic cravings
Plastic-free chewing gum brand Milliways has launched a new range called ‘Plasti Chews’ gum. The company has “listened to consumers who can’t help but keep chewing on plastic gum” as it aims to satisfy plastic cravings with its Plastic Bag, Credit Card and Plastic Straw flavours.
In collaboration with a range of TikTok influencers, the April Fools’ campaign launches with unboxings and taste tests of the ‘Plasti Chews’ new plastic chewing gum range.
“Many of us use tote bags for our weekly shop and reusable cups for our coffee, and yet don’t realise that the gum we’re chewing on is made from single-use plastic,” said Milliways head of brand and marketing, Rosie Goddard, coming clean about the stunt.
“Our April Fools’ aim was to highlight the bizarre nature of chewing on plastic with a fun and memorable campaign that shows just how ludicrous it is that the gum industry is yet to go plastic-free.”
