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April Fools 2014 roundup

April 1 brings out the fool in many of us and this year has been no exception. Here’s a wrap-up of the April Fools gags we’ve spotted. We’ll be updating it throughout the day.

Update 12.09pm – 

Well its after 12pm and congrats to most of the advertising industry many of whom spotted Mumbrella’s April Fools prank highlighting the issue of: does agencyland really understand Western Sydney?

The ad industry got a bit of a laugh from the idea of OMD taking a rivercat to Parramatta or John Sintras training to match Hawkie’s beer chugging record. We appreciate those who took the joke in the good humour it was intended, and did want to single out commenter ‘fact’ who had a joke at our expense writing: “As if Katie Rigg-Smith goes to Parra for her fitness classes. worst fact checkers in journalism!”

Vegemite is launching an energy drink: 

Vegemite

Optus is launching an app to allow your four-legged friend to text you.

Meanwhile over at TV Tonight David Knox is reporting that Andrew Bolt is to replace Charlie Pickering as the host of The Project. 

It includes this great quote from a Ten spokesman:

TEN declined to comment on the details, simply saying, “The Project is in the top 15 shows for  13-29 year olds.

“We are in this for the long haul.”

The mark of a good prank is when it catches people out. For example, The Age’s state political report Richard Willingham.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 9.53.52 AM

Mix101.1FM had a good prank with Chrissie and Jane revealing the MKR Winners.

Meanwhile in other media related pranks, kudos to The Australian’s James Jeffrey for this dig at the AFR which took ours from last year one step further:

AFR

In South Australia The Advertiser has done a “tactical ad” for April Fools: Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 10.10.22 AM

And in the tech space Kogan has continued their tradition of pranks with the launch of the Kogan Drone Broadband Network, “a competitor to the NBN”.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 9.58.33 AMScreen Shot 2014-04-01 at 9.58.41 AMAccording to the statement:

Australia’s biggest online retailer, Kogan.com, has today unveiled the Kogan Drone Broadband Network (DBN). The DBN will use drones in the sky to deliver faster Internet for all Australians, replacing the need for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The current Australian NBN rollout is going to cost an estimated $73 billion. Frustrated by the delays and cost blow-out associated with the NBN, Kogan’s team of engineers decided to take matters into their own hands.

As the name suggests, Kogan’s DBN will rely solely on drones to deliver lightning fast Internet to data loving Aussies, who don’t want to spend more than five minutes waiting for House of Cards or Game of Thrones to download.

The Kogan DBN is lightning fast. It literally transports data from point to point faster than any other series of tubes.

Budget airline Scoot is now offering hot yoga classes on its flights…

Yoga1Yoga2According to the statement:

Scoot is pleased to announce the launch of a world’s first… an inflight hot yoga class now available to guests on our daily flight TZ 220 from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Operating the widebody Boeing 777-200 means extra leg (and elbow) room to perform the half-moon pose!

Said Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot, “We all love a good stretch during flight so, following the success of our ScootInSilence child-free cabin, Scoot is delighted to launch the YogaZone! The Scoot YogaZone uses our aptly-named s-t-r-e-t-c-h seats’ 38” legroom to their fullest, enabling you to really get a full body workout whilst zooming to your destination.  What’s more, we’ll even cater to the Bikram enthusiasts by ramping up a small part of the cabin to 40.6 C for 60 minutes during flight, just like your own yoga studio’s hot room.”

Congratulations to the PR company Access PR which has picked up the account for North Korea Tourism. Their first promotion will be an international social media competition hashtag #DMZDinner. Sounds like a fun project…

The announcement:

Tourism North Korea has appointed Access PR to handle its public relations in an effort to boost the appeal of the rarely visited country, with a specific remit to improve the appeal of the Kim Jung-un.

The agency’s experience with Destination NSW, Fairfax Events, hotelscombined.com.au and Cover-More Travel Insurance gave it the edge over other pitching agencies, said CEO Andrea Kerekes.

“We understand the appointment may be controversial, but at the end of the day, no one is holding a gun to anyone’s head to visit,” Kerekes said.

Also, in our dealings so far with the Ministry of Tourism and the Korean People’s Army, we learnt there is a lot that is misunderstood about the country, their harmless military exercises and the Dear Leader. The hair cut rumour is just one example. The truth was Mr Jung-un simply wants everyone to weigh the same as him, not look the same – it’s an important distinction,” she added.

One of the first initiatives Access PR will instigate as part of North Korea’s new PR activity will be an international social media competition – #DMZDinner –  where people can win a seat an exclusive outdoor dinner, featuring sustainable nuclear-powered lighting, hosted in the Demilitarised Zone with the Dear Leader and 50 other guests.

Already one of Access’s recommendations has been put into action, with the North Koreans yesterday faxing South Koreans about their live-fire drills as a heads up.

And finally AdNews and Campaign Brief

AdNews had a very clever piece on Harold Mitchell launching his own media agency. 

This included some great lines about the agency launching with $6.5bn in billings and forcing the cancelation of the Publicis Omnicom merger in Australia.

The best line was the name: “The agency is to be called Maximus Decimus Meridius, which is the latin for ‘ten per cent or nothing’.”

Campaign Brief were also very funny with their story about Rowan Dean returning to Havas Worldwide as ECD.

The quote from Dean is especially good: “I’m excited to be coming back to Havas Sydney at a time when the agency is so highly regarded around the world, and I’m particularly grateful to Steve for having had a minor hand in that. I’m especially looking forward to all the new challenges facing us at Euro, er, I mean Havas. The new team has a tremendous vision for the agency, and I’m delighted to be a part of it.”

Additional Update: 

Some other April Fools pranks we liked are Crikey reporting Sophie Mirabella to chair SBS board with News Corp’s Piers Akerman also joining the board.

It includes the quotes:

Akerman stated that he was looking forward to the “colour and movement” of the role and believed he had appropriate qualifications:

“I think even my critics would accept that I’m a well-known champion of South American products, for instance.”

2UERadioinfo were behind the 2UE Breakfast makeover of two of the baldest men in the industry John Stanley and Garry Linnell.

We also wonder also like the selfie bot.

The dumb ways to die April Fools ad:

Sportsbet tried to tell punters they were launching betting on Kangaroo Racing:

“The 1600m event will be held at Hanging Rock Races tomorrow with eight well trained kangaroos taking the field.”Roo

And the idea of Pet Wifi:Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 12.38.30 PMScreen Shot 2014-04-01 at 12.38.39 PM

Update 2:30pm – A final couple of April Fools:

There’s the Lelo Vibrator that makes you smarter. Its for right handers apparently…

KFC have a mouth enlarger to help you eat more of their burgers.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 2.57.53 PM

The ABC had a report that ABC 24 breakfast hosts Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland were defecting.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 2.51.20 PM

Student Flights were offering twinshare on business class. 

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 3.00.38 PM

And the REA Group has been on the ball as well, paying homage to the people of Erinsborough, the fictional suburb of soapie Neighbours.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 2.43.11 PM

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