April Fool’s Day is good fun in the most part, but when businesses start to get involved it can seriously backfire!
We are all in favour of a few harmless giggles and no doubt you have seen a good few rib-ticklers this morning. It can be fun between friends, but sometimes companies jump on the April Fool bandwagon to great effect. A good April Fool can go viral, I particularly remember the Ted Baker retractable high heels which had every girl hoping they were real! However, if you get an April Fool even slightly wrong it can be disastrous.
You have to think carefully about the type of joke you plan on playing and the audience it will reach. Offering something from your business that isn’t real could leave you falling foul of advertising guidelines, whilst other subjects can be very sensitive to some.
I once worked for someone who would send out an April Fool every year to his clients, but discovered that making a business changing offer during financially hard times got peoples hopes up, leaving them extremely angry when they realised the truth. This actually permanently damaged some client relationships and I doubt the businesses reputation looked great either. It was all meant as completely harmless fun but in this case the mood of the audience was completely misjudged.
If you decide to pull a prank this morning, just make sure you take the long-term consequences into consideration before you take the plunge, it can be a very hard thing to undo.
