QOTD: Corporate April Fool's Jokes - Chuckle or Chuck 'Em?
Check your sugar bowl for salt, watch for shaving cream on the toilet seat, and take tentative steps on the linoleum. On the off chance you’ve forgotten: it’s April Fool’s Day.
Automakers reliably get in on the game, especially in this day and age of instant social media messages, creating all manner of wacky and groan-inducing marketing plays. There have been a couple of good ones over the years — but also plenty of stinkers. Do you like it when car companies trot out an April Fool’s Joke?
I will defend to the death my placement of that apostrophe, by the way.
Sure, one can view an OEM’s April Fool’s Day efforts as a cynical marketing effort designed to grab a few Likes online, but the practice predates Instagram by ages. Thirty-five years ago, BMW printed ads claiming one of its engineers, Herr Blöhn, had designed a sunroof that could be kept open even in the rain, thanks to jets of air that blasted the water away from the top of the car. Come on — in the grand scheme of corporate April Fool’s, that one’s not bad.
Likewise, Vauxhall’s announcement of the Accelerator Pedal Retarding Intervention Lump in 2006 was good for a chuckle. This detachable chunk of floor mat sat underneath the loud pedal, preventing drivers from giving it the beans. Your humble author may deploy something similar in the Charger when ankle biters get their driver’s license, come to think of it.
Are corporate April Fool’s jokes up your alley? Or do you give them the thumbs down?
[Images: Toyota, BMW, Vauxhall]
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The best part about the BMW April Fools' joke (with correct apostrophe placement unless you think there's only one eligible fool in the world) is the recipient named on the mail-in coupon.
The Hyundai N roadster concept posted elsewhere is a very cruel Apeil Fool's joke. It's the Honda S2000 successor that Honda simply wont build.