Best April Fools' Pranks 2017

Best April Fools’ Pranks 2017

3 Apr , 2017

This weekend, we all put on our skeptical glasses and finally doubted some of the things we read online. Yup, it was April Fools’ Day and there was no lack of companies joining in on the funny hoaxes. Here are my favorite tech company pranks from this April 1st!

Amazon– Amazon’s prank video this year might have fooled some hopeful pet owners! As you know, in 2016 the company released the Amazon Echo, a smart speaker that uses an AI personal assistant “Alexa” to preform tasks like playing music or even ordering pizza. Playing off of this, Amazon’s April Fools’ video reveals “Petlexa” an AI assistant that understands pets. The video jokingly shows a cat ordering sushi and a hamster keeping track of its fitness goals! The goofy video can be found here: Amazon video.

Google– This tech giant makes April Fools jokes every year. This year the company made a video for “Google Wind.” The hoax video showed off “new technology” that allows Google to change the stereotypically rainy weather in Netherlands using high tech windmills to blow away the rain clouds. The video ends with the text “Sun in Holland starting April 1st.” Here is the video if you want to have a laugh: Google video.

Kodak– I’ve saved my favorite for last. Kodak used April Fools’ Day to make a great point about digital pictures: they are extremely precious! Here’s the setup: Kodak employees hit the streets showing off their “new tech” that “supercharged” phones. Unsuspecting volunteers who passed over their phone to charge, were horrified to watch their phone screen display errors and notify them that all their photos had been erased! The Kodak employees apologized and offered to pay money to make up for the lost photos. This offer prompted conversations and complaints that money wouldn’t do because their photos were priceless and that they wish they would have backed them up. The stunt was, of course, a fake way to promote “Kodak Moments” app urging people to backup their photos! Can you imagine the relief when the hoax was revealed!? Genius, right? Here is the video: Kodak video.