April Fools' Grades

Mike Leitao ~ 04/03/2025

One of the greatest days of the year recently just passed. That’s right, good ol April Fools Day. Now I already can tell you are thinking “No, I’m not a toddler so I actually think this is dumb and stupid and childish”. Grow up. April Fools Day is an excuse to be a dickhead to people with an easy out. It is honestly one of my favorite days of the year. For example, I went up to one of my colleagues that day and told him he does really good work and that I enjoyed working with him. I then hit him with the “April Fools” and watching the joy leave his eyes as he realized he just got punked brought me so much joy. Does this make me an awful person? Probably. But it also got me thinking about how companies somehow always kill it when it comes to April Fools Day. Seriously, most of these companies can’t market for shit but somehow April Fools Day rolls around and they got the funniest damn employees working for them. I thought there is no one better to judge marketing tactics than me, so I decided to undertake this challenge. Don’t agree? By now, you know I don’t care.

Dr. Pepper/Tic Tacs:

What a weird group to do a collab. They announced they were making Dr. Pepper flavored Tic Tacs. On one hand, there are some wild people out there who would absolutely devour this shit cause they are obsessed with Dr. Pepper. On the other hand, for the rest of the world who are normal and not obsessed, this was just kind of a thing that happened and you went “ha funny” and moved on. Mid prank gets a mid grade. C+

Yahoo:

Yahoo kept it pretty simple this year, taking the phrase “go touch grass” literally by creating a keyboard covered in grass. The issue is that to touch grass is not really an insult that is used nowadays. A few years ago and this would have been a pretty witty ad that capitalized on a popular term that could be easily related to the product. Unfortunately, this just feels a little outdated, kinda like Yahoo in general. C-

Raising Canes:

Skin care is so important. That’s why Raising Canes is looking out for you by releasing a moisturizer based on their iconic sauce. The use of Cardi B was solid, even if she is a straight bum. I don’t think the hype for Canes is what it once was a couple years ago, but I think people still love Canes sauce and a celebrity inclusion is always fun, so it beats Yahoo. B

Reese’s:

Chocolate infused bread for perfect PB&J sandwiches. This is so sad that it is not a real thing, cause this would slap. Reese’s has done PB&J before, so you get a hint of “wait is this real” along with a good product that people would most likely enjoy. That’s a good prank and a good grade. B+

Crunch:

What better to do for crunch than to remove the crunch. Saying they changed the formula to remove the crunch and make it 75% quieter is just so funny to me. Why 75%? This one is probably not really that good, but it’s my ranking and I find it funny so it gets a good ranking. B+

Popeyes:

Popeyes went down an interesting trail for their joke. It started with a teaser for some new item menus that seemed pickle focused. Then, they launched an exclusive line of pickle products on April Fools Day. The catch, this wasn’t a prank, it was an actual real new line of food. Soooo uh yeah? I guess? I mean, it’s creative so that’s a plus. But it’s also not a prank or joke and I hate pickles, so yeah that’s gotta be a bad grade. F

IKEA:

IKEA did a couple of pranks, but my favorite was the new store design. If you’ve ever been in an IKEA, you know they are massive. Now imagine if instead of a looping store, it was a simple straight line. No curves or bends, just isles and isles of furniture. The image was hilarious, and the fact that it somehow made their already awful store layout even worse is impressive. Add this with the fact the other one they did was decent too and this was a solid April Fools Day for IKEA. A

“Sour” Patch Kids:

Now this is how you do a preloaded prank. Last week Sour Patch Kids made a simple announcement. Everyone wants to complain we aren’t sour enough? Then we get rid of the sour in full and are now Just Patch Kids. It came out of nowhere and they fully committed to the bit by changing all their social media handles to match. We were all curious like is this a real thing? Are we going to be able to purchase Just Patch Kids? They made a few more posts about it but honestly it didn’t even seem like a preloaded April Fools prank as much as some fun from the marketing department. Then April Fools Day came around and the sour was back to thunderous applause from all. They killed it, simple. They generated interest in the brand that lasted for over a week and had people invested. Can’t do better than this. A+++

So do these companies make me regret what I said about marketers last week? No, not at all. If you did pranks or jokes like this all the time, they would lose effectiveness and become bad and stale. By only having one day a year where it is acceptable normally works in the favor of these companies. Even with all of that said, the above rankings are proof that even something as simple as April Fools Day is for marketing, they still find a way to fuck it up.