April Fools’ Day 2025 in the Brand and Marketing World
When April Fools’ Day rolls around, everyone wants to get in on the fun! From switching out the sugar for salt to covering the toilet seat in plastic wrap, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the prankster’s holiday. Even companies and brands like to join in on the joke! Throughout the years, we’ve seen a litany of humorous to downright hilarious statements come from companies around April 1st, all capitalizing on the fun and lighthearted nature of the day. 2025 was no different for April Fool’s Day, with hundreds of brands coming out of the woodwork to fire off a cheeky press release or create a silly social post. Here are some of our favorite brand jokes and stunts the 309 Marketing Group took notice of this year:
Don’t Think Too Hard About the Taste
If you’re familiar with brand pranks from years past, you might notice the urge for companies to make up completely out-there products. For example, this year, Olipop, makers of healthy prebiotic sodas, announced their latest collaboration with Hidden Valley to create a new line of “delicious” drinks. That’s right: Olipop and Hidden Valley teamed up to create refreshing ranch-flavored drinks. The limited-edition “Ranch Lovers Pack” includes flavors like classic salad dressing and Garlic Ranch. For this April 1st promotion, Olipop went so far as to send sodas with Hidden Valley wrapping to influencers to share on social media.
Not to be outdone by Olipop and Hidden Valley Ranch, Subway dreamed up their own footlong-inspired drinks. As part of their April 1st announcement, Subway made inroads into the fitness world with their new Subwhey protein shakes. Now, gym goers can “maximize those gains” with some uniquely flavored protein shakes, including options such as Meatball Marinara, Turkey & Swiss and Spicy Italian.
Thankfully, for the sake of our tastebuds, neither of these products was actually produced.
We Love Cats!
If there’s something the internet goes wild for, it’s cute videos and pictures of cats. Don’t worry; company brands know this too! That’s why at least a few “cat-centric” April Fools’ jokes come from well-known companies. However, for a company that already is all about cats, they have to get creative.
Take the pet tech company Whisker, for example. You already might have one of Whisker’s automated litter boxes in your home. However, those who purchased a new litter box on April 1st got an extra surprise: a CAT PÙ / NO. 2 candle from Detroit Wick. If you can gather from the candle’s name, its unique scent is meant to invoke the “unforgettable scent of a litter box” you might be missing with the odor control of Whisker’s Litter-Robot. Fortunately, the candle’s actual scent is a floral rose fragrance instead (phew!).
Tech Companies Encourage Customers to Go Outside
Have you heard of the phrase “touch grass” before? It’s a slang born of the internet age, popularized by numerous online communities. The idea behind the phrase is simple: it’s told to people thought to be glued to their computers or online spaces. In other words, to tell someone to “touch grass” is to say “go outside” and get some fresh air. This playful yet critical saying encourages chronically online individuals to reconnect with the real world. This April Fools’ Day, not one but two different brands decided to poke fun at their followers with this phrase.
For a limited time, Yahoo began selling specialized keyboards with an “agricultural interface.” In other words, every key on this keyboard was covered with a soft patch of grass. Thanks to such an innovative product, those accused of being addicted to the internet or games could claim they were, in fact, “touching grass.”
Dbrand, an accessories company for phones, laptops and digital devices, had a similar idea with their April Fools’ Day announcement. Funnily enough, their new product offering was also plant-based, with soft-to-the-touch grass-like covers to protect all your important devices. Now, anyone can touch grass safely from the comfort of their couch while browsing online.
Silly product ideas like what Yahoo and Dbrand created are enough to have a lighthearted laugh with their communities while showing them to be more in touch with internet culture (no pun intended).
That Owl is Out to Get You
Are you ready to set sail with Carnival Cruise Line on the country hopping and language-learning adventure of a lifetime? Carnival and Duolingo, the popular language-learning app, came together to offer an incredible cruise trip for those wishing to immerse themselves in the languages and cultures of the world. Yet, not everything with this trip is as it seems.
As the promotion continues, some of it starts not to add up. A journey across seven continents (that’s ALL of them), where you can expect a round trip of 5 YEARS to visit 195 different countries and learn over 40 new languages. Suffice it to say that’s not your average cruise trip length.
Other parts of the ad feature the food and amenities you can expect on the Duolingo cruise. However, after this, where the ad takes a slightly darker turn, it drops all pretenses of being a real cruise.
Duolingo is well known for its cute, green owl mascot continually reminding you to do your daily language lesson and to not “break your streak.” It has been a meme for some time when this owl gets increasingly pushy as the day goes on, practically screaming at app users to finish their lessons before midnight. In a fun (and slightly sinister) nod to the aggressive tendencies of this owl, the ad reminds viewers to keep up their 1,826-day streak the entirety of the trip, or “the owl will deny you the knowledge of eternal peace.” After which, a cruisegoer is forced into a tube and ejected (assumedly) from the boat. You won’t want to get on the bad side of THIS friendly cartoon owl.
As luck would have it, no such cruise excursion exists. However, you can pick up a piece of Duolingo World Cruise merch if you want to get in on the joke yourself.
Of course, those were only a few of the 309 team’s favorite April Fools’ brand jokes for 2025. There are dozens more to see and plenty of fun jokes worth investigating of April Fools’ Days past. Apart from having a little fun with your advertising, if you want to do something new and unique with your company’s brand and marketing, make a change with support from 309 Marketing Group! From online advertising campaigns to search engine optimization strategies, we offer comprehensive digital (and traditional) marketing services to clients in Central Illinois and the United States. To learn more about 309 Marketing or to schedule a consultation, call 309-213-9398.