We promise to be honest and not play the Devil's advocate today.
While there are no certain historical records to the beginning of this day's tradition per say, there are many analogies to it.
For one, it is believed that the name of the day has its roots in Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' in 1392 while others give it a more religious touch. It is said that Pope Gregory XIII set the foundation of the Julian Calender in 1582 by doing away with the old style Gregorian Calendar. As tradition has it, the old world cultures like Romans celebrated New Year's Day on 1 April instead of January 1.
And thus it became a time-hardened tradition to poke fun and play practical jokes in Europe and soon spreading to the other parts of the world.
"April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain" says T.S Eliot in his poem The Waste Land.
Indeed Eliot's insightful words take a whole new on this very day. For those blessed with good humor, take things in its stride, however, being at the receiving end is never a good feeling.
Today as Twitter did its share of drama by announcing a premium based service to its users and dispelling with vowels in its tweets; its not a stand alone case of playing practical jokes.
Our corporate world has its own share of tomfoolery lined up. Here are some notorious All Fools' corporate advertising gags:
1. Procter & Gamble, the famous pharma giant rigged an entire site and social media campaign to sell its bacon flavored mouthwash. With a tagline of "for breath that sizzles", the product is still in its incognito phase.
Salted. Cured. Meat.Mr. #ScopeBacon knows where you can find the savory goodness. twitter.com/ScopeMouthwash…
— ScopeMouthwash (@ScopeMouthwash) March 28, 2013
2. Back in 2008, the Irish Beer baron, Guiness sent out a press release claiming that it had earned the sponsorship rights to rename the Greenwich Mean Time as Guiness Mean Time. The Financial Times also published this without taking into account the date of notification.
3. Google is the most concerted staple on April Fools Day stage. In the past, it has played around with the web users by announcing a fake Google Map for Nintendo. The annoucement campaign showed "showed a bulky old plastic cartridge similar to those used for Duck Hunt play of yore."
This year Google again topped the list with its Google Nose in its beta version and a treasure hunt map as well.
4. BBC is known for its informative and awe-inspiring videos. Who would have thought that they had a funny bone in their backdrop that could well be unfolded on April Fools'Day!
In a documentary on nature, the site hosted a video claiming to have discovered a colony of flying penguins. Pepped up with enough animation, BBC tied up with "iPlayer" to host the video for those who believed it and could re-watch it any number of times.
5. Burger King in a famous April Fools'Day goof up, published a full page ad in the USA Today for left handed people. Keeping up with The Guardian who floated an ad about a left-handed chocolate bars some years back, Burger King's ad read "After years of neglect, left-handed eaters will no longer need to conform to traditional right-handed eating methods".
6.Like its close-in rival Google, Microsoft is never far behind in indulging in some fun. The tech giant promised to bring out a Windows Pager by 2014. In a age of smartphones and a Google Glass waiting in tow to be grabbed, most of the industry blew the bluff neat and clean while others recommended it for the kids who are too young to have a phone.
7. In U.K, BMW is a regular prankster on this day. Their website reads out "The April Fools’ Day concepts are designed to teeter on the verge of credibility, therefore taking in scores of slightly less vigilant readers. The concepts tend to focus on a new and revolutionary piece of technology from BMW, yet push the idea just beyond the plausible".
Their famous spoofs include the 2006 Canine Repellent Alloy Protection technology that claimed to use a electrical charge called Rim Impulse Power (R.I.P) that could prevent dogs from peeing on luxury cars.
Their famous spoofs include the 2006 Canine Repellent Alloy Protection technology that claimed to use a electrical charge called Rim Impulse Power (R.I.P) that could prevent dogs from peeing on luxury cars.
They may not be the "laugh-your-guts-out" type of jokes but certainly top guns certainly manage to draw some wool over the customers atleast on this day.
A Happy April Fools Day readers!You can leave us a comment below about your April Fools' Day experiences.
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