April Fools Day: 'Brain Balm' to 'Flying Selfies', how brands pranked us this year

Fake products and fake promises from brands, all done in good fun in the spirit of April Fools Day

e4m by e4m Desk
Published: Apr 1, 2024 12:47 PM  | 4 min read
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It's April Fools Day and our guards are up! We're taking everything we hear with a brick of salt today. If April Fools Day pranks from families, friends and colleagues weren't enough, we have the brands joining the trolling bandwagon.

Every year, brands celebrate the spirit of the "festival" by unleashing some neat tricks—some obvious some not so obvious—on the unexpecting. Nothing's off the table for the brands who will fool the audience with promises of fake products, prank videos, social media stunts and dubious promotions. But it's all done in good fun.

The point is to generate some buzz, reinforce the brand personality and connect with the consumers in a light-hearted, fun way as long as it's in good taste.
Here are some of the pranks we saw from brands on April Fools Day so far.

Abhibus & ixigo

Ixigo & AbhiBus teamed up to launch "a new technology for travellers to capture their moments with its new drone selfie stick called as FLYFIE." The fictional product is a drone for your phone that captures selfies while being airborne. We wish this were real.  

Ajio

Fashion e-retailer Ajio's April Fool prank is for the history books. The company has "launched" the revolutionary FutureFits, garments that can change colour, shape and style at the wearer's will. Where do we sign up?

Amazon Prime

Jackie Shroff pulled a prank on behalf of Amazon Prime with a reel introducing the "Jaggu Dada" mode.

Blinkit

Blinkit broke hearts this April Fool's with a mean prank at the expense of Cadbury Bytes lovers.

Bikaji

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boAt

Despite smarting from the backlash from Apple fans, boAt has taken another potshot against its snobby rival today on April Fools.

Delhi Police

Delhi Police Delhi Police never fails to amaze people with their cool and Gen-Z approach towards social media awareness on crime and fraud. This one makes people cognizant of how they can prevent falling prey to cyber crime.

Disney+ Hotstar

Dominos

Dominos has put out a clever creative for all the pesky friends who demand "party" for every inconsequential thing.

Time to say, “Domino’s treat on me!” to my bestie! #AprilFoolsDay #DominosIndia pic.twitter.com/O9FKpuG6LN

Faasos

Faasos' pulled a fast one on its followers for April Fool's with the promise of a free roll. 

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Haldiram's Nagpur

Google

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A post shared by Google India (@googleindia)

Farmley

Farmley has unveiled an "exclusive product" so good that we're sad that it's just a prank. The almond-infused, memory-boosting "Brain Balm" boasts of many things. "No more forgetting passwords, no more forgetting anniversaries, no more forgetting where you parked your car, no more forgetting to soak almonds in the night," reads its laundry list of benefits. If only this weren't a prank.

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A post shared by Farmley (@farmleyin)

Paper Boat

In its signature style, Paper Boat brought back some nostalgia with an animated film for April Fools. 

Swiggy

Food delivery app Swiggy has made a controversial declaration against India's favourite beverage: "I'm gonna quit drinking chai from today." 

i’m gonna quit drinking chai from today pic.twitter.com/VPiXbQ0mN0

— Swiggy (@Swiggy) April 1, 2024

Swiggy Instamart

Instamart celebrated the day by paying homage to the greatest prank ever played.

This was probably the most fun April Fool’s prank as most of us started to do the math. Did you fall for this too?

Tide

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A post shared by Tide India (@tide.india)

Pocket FM

This April Fool’s Day, Pocket FM has come up with a "crime thriller audio series made exclusively for animals". 

Published On: Apr 1, 2024 12:47 PM