With all that is currently going on in the world this April Fools Day, a good laugh is much needed. April Fools Day presents organisations with the chance of actually being dishonest with their audiences with the intention of humouring them.

This day has inspired some very interesting and not so interesting campaigns from brands. Here, we have highlighted some of the pranks pulled off by brands that we felt got it right.

Kenyan brands April Fools' pranks

Let us start you off with the local scene. The creative industry in Kenya is definitely booming and these April Fools pranks prove just that:

SASA by Safaricom

With the appeal of smart homes on the rise, Safaricom decided to 'launch' its own smart speaker. The home assistant device also came with its own AI dubbed SASA, which could apparently pick up Sheng and cater to all Kenyan accents. This prank was so believable that people wanted to know the speaker's price and where they could purchase it.

DIY-Fi Emulsion Paint

Crown Paints decided to try their hand at April Fools with quite the innovative product, DIY-Fi paint. They claimed it could boost your home's WiFi connection by bouncing it back ensuring there was total coverage. It was definitely too good to be true.

Boom X

What can possibly be better than a phone that folds twice? A phone that can fold four times. This was Tecno Kenya's vision with the Boom X.

Netflix And Ride

SafeBoda Kenya decided that their riders needed an upgraded helmet that would have interesting features such as a solar panel, WiFi and a charging port. The cherry on top was the screen display that would allow one to watch Netflix on their ride.

Duracoat Total Whitening Toothpaste

Basco Paints decided to try their hand at April Fools with quite the innovative product; whitening toothpaste. After years of being a leading manufacturer of paints in East Africa, the company decided it was time to expand their product selection with toothpaste that boasts a lot of benefits.

International brands April Fools' pranks

April Fools has also been utilised by international brands as a way to engage with their audiences in a memorable way. We have compiled our favourite pranks from well-known organisations:

Lego SmartBricks

Ever experienced the pain of stepping on a piece of lego? Well you'll never have to experience this pain with Lego's newest creation, SmartBricks. If your foot approaches any pieces of lego on the floor, the bricks will automatically scatter saving you any pain.

Pepper Hacker

Dolmio developed a device called the Pepper Hacker which could switch off surrounding WiFi and electronic devices. The concept behind the campaign was that disgruntled mothers could use the device to reclaim dinner time with their families from the distractions of technology. Dolmio cleverly associated the digital detox trend to their own product.

Petlexa

Amazon Echo is a big hit due to its virtual voice assistant, Alexa. This ad showed us a glimpse of what would happen if house pets had the capability of using an Amazon Echo with its own AI, Petlexa.

ShuberX

Some of the best pranks are a result of collaboration and this was exactly the case with Shuber X. Toms and Uber partnered up for this hilarious campaign that suggested the next big invention would be using carton boxes and shoes as the vehicles for the ride-hailing app.

Space-Aged Whiskey

This April Fools day ad done by Jameson showed audiences the next level in the whiskey game. Rather than settle for the whiskey aged here on earth, Jameson offered its customers whiskey aged in space.

One of consistent themes we've observed for executing a successful fools day campaign is taking advantage of the rate at which technology is advancing. Innovations in the tech space are increasing by the day with people unaware of what's possible and what's not. Use these examples to inspire your future April Fools ideas that will not only entertain your audiences, but also engage them.