Brand Fool’s Day

This week, April Fool’s Day, will be celebrated by some eager ones, much to the chagrin of some miffed others—especially the chosen victims of a few infantile, daft, but well-timed pranks.

Many sources cite the inception of this event as somewhere around the 16th century. It marked the movement from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in Europe.

The intention, or marketing objective in today’s terms, was to have the laggards join this chronological shift. By getting them to accept Jan 1st as the official start of the year via playfully (and perhaps not so playfully) ‘shaming’ them about their ‘dated’ ideas (all puns intended).

This strategy of ‘divide and shame’ was then mimicked by many leading brands in later years in terms of showing their non-usage as something for non-users to hang their heads or squirm with discomfort about.

But, jokes aside, or more accurately, embracing the humour at hand, does this event have some interesting ideas that it can inspire when it comes to modern-day marketing?

It is a novel and quirky occurrence for sure. And, whenever something of that nature surfaces, innovation and off-beat ideas follow as close cousins.

In the spirit of familiarising oneself with some of those relatives, it’s about time brands started taking themselves a lot less seriously.

While this might be difficult and probably not desirable on a long-term level, ONE DAY where this could happen might just provide a much-needed outlet.

Over the last few decades, brands have transformed into modern-day philosophers. It’s unlikely that many consumers today are well versed with the Upanishads or the works of Plato and Aristotle, or even Confucius. But the sweeping narratives and inspiring slogans of brands seem tattooed in our consciousness.

These brands have long travelled beyond the limits of what their categories can realistically promise. They consistently assert their ability to improve the world, yet they never venture beyond the realm of bathroom application and relevance.

The irony of that should never be lost.

Either on the people working on the brand or those using it.

Internal brand roasts might be a recipe for keeping things grounded. Roasting things is a ritual which not just ensures healthy food; it also prevents egos from assuming calorie-laden proportions. 

Although this is usually seen to apply only to human egos, even those of brands can grow out of hand. One day, where the internal teams converge to see the funny side of their dealings, could just be what the brand doctor prescribed.

It could represent an avenue where foibles could be talked about, even celebrated, and the reality of tall claims could be irreverently taken apart. 

Importantly, humour has the interesting knack of always uncovering unexpected new ideas and generating original lines of thinking. A rather surprising side effect of this ‘seriousness release’ could be the brand team actually discovering a few potent ideas to pursue.

Fooling the friend could be an outward-facing initiative. Here the brand could pull a fast one on its customers. In these days of customer reverence, brand custodians often forget the humanity of the interaction. Nothing quite cues that, like being able to crack a joke at each other’s expense. 

BBC’s legendary Spaghetti Tree prank – where they made viewers believe such trees grew in Switzerland – started things on this path as early as the fifties. Kingfisher’s Instant Beer Mix. Ola is promising an air cab. And Flipkart declaring it was accepting Bitcoin payments represents some well-intentioned recent attempts along these lines in India on April Fool’s Day. 

Sure, as with any effort to play a prank, there’s a chance for things to be taken in the wrong spirit. But, handled the right way, such attempts could truly help cement the brand bond even further. Things like featuring and rewarding the wittiest customer retorts to the prank could show emphatically this conversation goes both ways. Like it should, in any healthy, functioning relationship.

Picking another day to perform these initiatives might also be desirable. Especially for the outward-facing ones. Considering the antennae of people might be primed on April 1st for such hoaxes and the increasing clutter, the surprise element might be better by choosing other days. 

Over time, that day could also be uniquely associated by the customer with fun activities around the brand. It could become a day for levity and laughter, with the curvature of those smiles rolling the brand fortunes forward.

To conclude, another origin story of April Fool’s Day traces similarities with the festival of Hilaria observed in Ancient Rome. Perhaps it's time we endowed the spirit of April Fool’s Day with a roaming facility to influence our thinking and ideas in brand boardrooms.