" />Now the dust has settled on another April Fool’s Day, we wanted to share our favourites. Here are some of our favourites, that the Refresh team has shortlisted as: The Best April Fool’s Stunts of 2025. However, we’re also asking “Should April Fools’ stunts be solely for social feeds?”, following feedback from a leading lifestyle journalist on the potential of punny press releases to harm your chances of future earned media coverage.
Crème Egg on the go?
In the run up to Easter, a Cadbury’s Crème Egg or two is always within reach in our office. But for those who can’t get enough of the sweet fondant center, the chocolate brand launched sachets of its special sauce, branding them ”On the goo”. In a 10 second clip posted on its TikTok channel, the brand showed the sauce being slathered on fries. Delicious.
However, despite it being an obvious stunt, stranger things have happened, with the brand teaming up with Heinz to launch Crème Egg flavoured mayonnaise in 2019. It sent samples of the strange delicacy to journalists for them to try, with one outlet describing it as “profoundly disgusting”.
Dyson unleashes innovative Airwrap technology on the nation’s eyebrows
Hair and beauty fanatics rejoiced for a few seconds after seeing Dyson’s innovative hair wrap technology come to the rescue of the nation’s eyebrows. Yes, you heard that right – eyebrows.
Brits can now condition their brows using the same blow-dry technology, if the social post is to be believed. They used influencer, Victoria Magrath, to launch their Airbrow across their social media channels, getting close to 150,000 likes on the post. The social content was in keeping with its usual aesthetic style and didn’t look at all out of place to unsuspecting followers. This is a frontrunner for our favourite stunt as it is on-brand and ticks all the boxes of being authentic to its audience.
Walkers crisp packet colour swap confusion
Walkers played a prank on its loyal customers using out-of-home (OOH) digital display advertising across London to suggest it was changing the colour of its beloved salt & vinegar crisps from green to blue, and its cheese & onion crisps from blue to green. This follows a long-running debate on the designated colour of crisps, which saw competitor Golden Wonder take a swipe at Walkers in its marketing in 2013. A 2016 poll by the University of Oxford found that the nation thinks the colours should be swapped.
It also wouldn’t be the first branding u-turn this year after Abrdn added the vowels back into its brand name after being mocked by branding experts.
London Eye to be decommissioned?
The construction sector couldn’t help itself either. With the London Build Expo rumouring that the much-loved London Eye was to be decommissioned and sent to the scrap yard on their LinkedIn page. It suggested the pods would be auctioned to the highest bidder and the bank of the Thames would be redeveloped. Luckily, it was rendered untrue. We rather like the London Eye as a landmark
Addressing admin while on the tools?
Heating Installer Awards sponsor, PoweredNow, promised a VR headset that would let the nation’s tradespeople do their admin, invoicing, and quoting while they do their day jobs. Stopping tradies being off the tools for too long. Luckily, it’s just a joke, but I’m sure it left many thinking “what if”, and “is this the future of life as an installer?”.
Are April Fool’s stunts a good idea for your marketing strategy?
While many marketing directors and managers share our sense of humour – a little laughter never hurt anybody – it seems not everyone agrees. Some LinkedIn users condemned the cunning stunts to the marketing industry graveyard, suggesting the “Age of the April Fool Stunt is over”.
HuffPost UK Deputy Editor, Dayna McAlpine didn’t share the same enthusiasm for the faux news press releases filling up her inbox as some, warning that they may impact future chances of media coverage. Although some national news outlets – including the guardian, The Sun and Metro – do still cover brands’ best April Fool’s stunts. The lesson here for PR and marketing teams is to know your audience and choose the journalists you send your story to wisely.
Michael Taylor, Editor of The Business Desk in the North West also made his own jibe at poorly written press releases that lack news, or even any information. Without the footnote, we might have never known it was a prank and a not-so-subtle attempt at satire…
In our own LinkedIn poll, opinion was divided with 47% in favour of annual April foolishness, while 53% said no. PR and marketing industry leaders, and in-house marketing directors voted as well as some esteemed journalists. Interestingly, the journalists were more likely to say no while those from a marketing agency background said yes.
What marketing channel is most suitable for April Fool’s stunts?
With all the above considered, it’s clear to see April Fools’ marketing stunts have changed massively over the years. Many brands have moved away from issuing the news via press releases designed to grab headlines, towards social media posts that brands can share directly with their audiences, in the hope of “going viral”.
This shift from earned media channels, where journalists decide what’s newsworthy, to shared media, where brands control the message, and algorithms and audiences decide what resonates best.
There is still scope to have the joke covered by media, but PRs and marketers must be more selective with the journalists they share their press release with and target the publications that have a history of sharing April Fool’s quips. What’s to say a press release is even necessary? Often, a social post alone is enough to generate a news story.
While this gives brands more freedom to be creative, it also means only the most clever, attention-grabbing campaigns will make it into mainstream media. In a world where social engagement is key, April Fools’ stunts need to do more than just raise a smile, they have to get people talking and sharing to really make an impact.
Should April Fools’ stunts be solely for social feeds? It seems there’s still scope for them in the media, but they must be considered. If you want to attempt an April Fools stunt, or any daring PR stunt in the future, then Contact Us, and find out how we can support you.
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