Which brands got you this April Fools’ Day?

It’s that time of year again, when PR and marketing teams (and media outlets) let their imaginations run wild to both fool and entertain the customers. So who got tricky this April Fools?

Tip Top went after dog lovers by, creating a “natural” icecream with a “creamy taste that four-legged friends love”.

We really wish this wasn’t a joke. Mitre 10 managed to fool a few of its customers with a ‘silent hammer’.

Not sure if Idealog has done any work this week as the creative team have been busy putting together its fake ‘The Colour of Money’ adult colouring book. It features scenes with Rod Drury, John Key and Joan Withers.

We aren’t sure if this is shaping up to be like last year’s BMW ‘prank’, but Air New Zealand invited Aucklanders to hop on board the #BusToHawaii, even encouraging students to swap their uni books for a surf board as it travelled past the universities.

Broadband provider MyRepublic tapped into the virtual reality trend for its trick this year, offering users free VR porn.

Inspired by its “statistic” that users watch porn 10 times more than streaming movies, MyRepublic wanted provide its users with the “best viewing experience”.

Rather than virtual reality, Google was offering a rather radical idea – actual reality. The new Google Plastic promises to combine everything you love about VR headsets with everything you love about reality.

The Edge listeners went into panic mode, after the morning show announced Lorde would be “quitting music”.

While the prankers became the pranked on ZM.

Auckland was the victim of a joke by the Waikato Civil Defence. A message and graphic was posted on its Facebook page asking for submissions for the “Joint Abandonment From Auckland (‘JAFA’) amendment to the Group Hazard Plan”.

The graphic said Auckland had been identified as a “significant hazard” for the Waikato region, including “a diminished level of ruby”, “commercial real estate being monopolised by caffeine-based enterprise” and “an increase in the ‘man bun’ hair style”.

Google Australia came to the rescue of all those with missing socks, or so they think.

In a blog post it claims to have launched a range of Searchable Socks fitted with LTE beacons. If the wearer can’t find one sock they can press a beacon on its pair and let the Google Search app pinpoint its whereabouts.

Jetstar took on Singlish as its official language.

Ambience lighting tried to trick its customers into adopting a new lighting system.

Virgin Australia dreamed up a class for kids that was too good to be true.

Gold Coast Tourism played a joke on Kiwi travellers saying they were “well known for bringing the bad weather with them”. In order to stop Kiwis from raining all over the popular holiday destination, faux rules were created targeting passengers carrying cold weather clothing and items that carried any trace of precipitation including:

• Pessimistic clothing or footwear, including sweatshirts, jackets, hoodies, beanies, scarves or boots
• Items carrying traces of precipitation
• Items exposed to rain, fog, snow, hail or storms in the last 10 days
• Umbrellas, rain jackets, ponchos or gumboots
• Thermal or woolen clothing including merino and polypropylene
• Water bottles or wheat bags

The rules were then enforced by the fictional Gold Cost Weather Protection Unit (GCWPU) and the announcement introduced in a mini-series of online videos.

• Seen any other good efforts? Drop it in the comments or send it to [email protected].