Sunday, April 1, 2012

5 Major Pranks Pulled Off By Big Name Brands

Happy April Fools Day!

In honor of today's lore of pranks and foolishness I thought it would be fun to show you 5 big pranks that big brands pulled on us!

Burger King


An ad was placed in the USA Today on April 1, 1998 introducing the "Left-Handed Whopper."  In the press release, it stated that the burger would "contain all of the same ingredients as a regular burger, but would be designed to fit more comfortably in the left hand."

Apparently the burger would result in less condiment spills as well because of the 180 degree rotation at which they would be placed on the burger to equally distribute the weight. Fancy.

Lefties and righties alike lined up alike to test out this new burger, not keeping in mind that burgers are round and circular.  The next day, Burger King released a statement telling everyone that the burger was a hoax.

Google... I mean Topeka


On April 1, 2010, Google announced that it would be renaming itself Topeka.

What makes this prank unique is that in March, the Topeka mayor announced that they would be unofficially naming Topeka, Google, to have the giant search engine choose their community for their "Fiber for Communities" program.

The next day, the site went back to normal, but not after a bunch of headlines!

Hulu looks very.... '90s?


On April 1, 2011, Hulu unveiled a new look and design.... that of a late '90s Geocities site.  The site included grainy images and simple fonts, along with of course, shows like 'The X-Files,' 'News Radio,' and 'Sliders.'


Taco Bell buys the Liberty Bell

This is one of the more memorable pranks because not only did the public fall for the prank, but it outraged them.

In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full page ad in six major newspapers indicating that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to help ease the national debt.

The ad said:

"It will now be called the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’ and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country's debt."

Following releases explained that the bell would be splitting its time between Philadelphia and the Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine, California.  As you can probably imagine, all of this upset just about every person NOT involved in the prank.

Therefore, by noon the company had released a statement crying foul and donated $50,000 to help with the up-keep of the bell.

NPR reports on a new teen trend of brand tattoos


On April 1, 1994, NPR reported that big companies like Pepsi, were paying teens to tattoo their brands on their bodies.  The teens were reportedly given a 10% discount after the tattoo was finished.



Teens from all over the nation were calling to to try and cash in on this sweet deal.

This blog update was brought to you by:

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/11266.aspx