April Fool’s: Brands go quiet during pandemic

By AdNews | 1 April 2020
 

April Fool’s is usually an opportunity for brands to pull marketing stunts that reach a large audience.

However, with the world fighting the coronavirus pandemic, many brands have noticeably skipped the jokes and pranks.

Sportsbet 

With the absence of live sports hitting fans, Sportsbet is letting users bet on classic matches. In a deal with Fox Sports, Kayo and Seven, the online bookmaker will offer odds on replays of past AFL and NRL matches to give customers some semblance of excitement during this tough time. “Like many businesses we are trying to maintain an element of momentum and thinking laterally to find solutions,” Sportsbet communications manager Rich Hummerston says. “Obviously, we will be asking customers to only wager on matches they do not already know the result of.” Sportsbet is also working on a deal with ESPN’s YouTube channel to land the rights to classic NBA matches, while negotiations with Cricket Australia unfortunately broke down.

Google
Google is skipping April Fool's jokes this year out of respect for those fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The digital giant, known for its pranks across its platforms, has also asked all staff to pause any jokes they had planned, according to reports. “Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so let’s save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one,” an internal email from its head of marketing Lorraine Twohill said. “We’ve already stopped any centralized April Fool’s efforts but realize there may be smaller projects within teams that we don’t know about. Please suss out those efforts and make sure your teams pause on any jokes they may have planned — internally or externally.”

Courses.com.au
Online course directory Courses.com.au is offering a Diploma of Quarantine Survival. The course focuses on teaching students how to abide by strict government-imposed lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, while retaining their sanity. It covers things such as how to use video calls, spot misinformation online and how to improvise toilet paper.

Zagame’s House
After months of collaborative testing and trialling from all of the Zagame’s House departments (in particular housekeeping), the team have perfected the distinct scent that your sheets emit after a good, vigorous, sweaty session. This fragrance is for all of the lovers who might not be getting the action that they desire (but certainly deserve). Zagame’s House is proud to offer the next best thing: SEX SHEETS. Everyone knows that sex sells, so get your paws on this hot new fragrance while stocks last. Set to be released on April 1, 2020.

sex sheets

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