This is not the time.
Every year come April Fool’s Day, some brand and/or practical joker with limited imagination thinks it’ll be fun to pull an April Fool’s joke.
First off: April Fool’s jokes aren’t jokes. There is never a set up nor a payoff. They usually involve lying to people, and then making them feel stupid.
They are not jokes, they are lies.
Which means they usually suck.
And on this year, of all years: Do not do them.
I know there’s some marketing exec out there right now who thinks of himself as a sort of caustic wit, and loves to “chop it up” or “bust balls” or whatever, who will make the argument that this is the perfect time to pull an April Fool’s joke for his brand.
It is not. It is the worst possible time. We are living in the second chapter of a post-apocalyptic novel right now. As a society we are collectively stressed, anxious, having weird nightmares, locked in our homes with an invisible enemy out there making our loved ones sick, or worse. That’s the healthy of us. Those suffering, well, their pain is significantly worse.
We don’t need pranks right now. If ever there were a time NOT for pranks, this is it.
Brands: I don’t care that you hired an ad firm that ideated a great prank or whatever. Call it off.
People: Don’t be idiots. Now is not the time. We can go back to your dumb lie-pranks next year, but for today, please, for all of us: Just don’t.
