APRIL FOOLSâ DAY MADNESS:
If you work in the consumer world or just care about good marketing, youâre probably aware that today was FILLED with April Fools' Day posts. We had a feeling this year would be especially unhinged when Sweetgreen started teasing their drop 3 days ago. We didnât expect to be pregaming this day all weekend, but honestly, weâre not complaining.
The sheer volume of posts from brands across industries was overwhelming. So much so that we seem to have reached some sort of posting limit and had to move our business to Substack (sorry, Meta!). We thought this would be a good opportunity to debut our April Foolsâ Day guide. Itâs a full list of brands that stood out to us, organized by theme or industry. Letâs get into it:
THE ONES WEâLL REMEMBER:
Sol de Janeiro Laughed at Themselves: In response to their viral spider controversy, Sol launched the fake âAranha Spider Salve + Cheirosa 8 Perfume Mistâ said to be inspired by the Amazon Rainforest AND the thousands of reviews, DMs, and feedback they received about their âDelĂcia Drench Body Butter.â This was a genius way to address the situation in a light-hearted way that also allowed them to poke fun at themselves, versus belittling the situation. It's a similar-ish approach BĂIS took in response to complaints about their bags getting dirty. Instead of playing offense, they hosted their âBĂIS Washâ activation, offering free cleaning for dirty Weekenders and Carry Ons. It's a perfect example of "actions speak louder than words" in action.
Sweetgreenâs Dental Hygiene Kit: Weâll be honest - this one got us. Part of it was because Sweetgreen was the first brand to tease April Fool's Day, but also because the comps were so spot on. HUGE shout out to Joy Chen, Brand Designer at Sweetgreen, who 3D modeled and designed the whole thing. We also love when brands tap into a very human experience consumers have with their products and play into it in creative ways. (This is basically why campaigns for Starface and Julie - basically all of Julie Schottâs brands - resonate so strongly.)
Equinoxâs Luxury Lost and Found: High-end brands frequently struggle with wanting to be cuLturAllY rELevaNt, but not wanting to dilute their positioning as a premium brand. In our opinion, Equinox just provided a great example of how to do this tastefully. They posted about a fake auction for "Lost and Found" items found in their locker rooms, including the following:
16GB Custom Engraved Flash Drive
18 Inch Bearskin Hat
10-Karat Jewelry with 422 Diamonds
You get the gist.
MANY CAME IN PAIRS:
Olipopâs Sour Cream and Onion Soda: As the biggest Sour Cream and Onion fans ever, we wanted this to be real so badly. Thatâs probably why this one almost got us too. Honestly, collaborating with such a large corporate company on a post like this is not easy, so kudos to the Olipop team for pulling this off. It made the entire thing even more believable and exciting.
BĂIS Expands Past Luggage toâŚan Airline: BĂIS joined forces with Indy Blueâs brand, Lonely Ghost, on âLonĂŠly Air,â their fake new airline. Honestly, Shay Mitchell should just paint her private jet red and make this happen. It feels like all our Ryan and Spirit Air vacations have been preparing us for this very moment.
Fly by Jingâs Heartburn Relief Hot Sauce: You know when you eat too much hot sauce and experience an insane degree of heartburn? Same. Thatâs why Fly by Jing and Arrae ideated the xxxtra spicy hot sauce with built-in 1-hour heartburn and acid reflux relief, AND the first de-bloat Dietary Supplement infused with the hottest peppers in China. These two brands could have individually come up with great concepts, but doing something together that plays to each other's strengths was so smart. We genuinely hope they actually make this.
Shake Shackâs 20K Gold Fry Fork: Itâs a thing for your thing! Your fry things! Shake Shack teamed up with Reinstein Ross on a 20K solid gold Forever Fry Forkâ˘ď¸. They joke, but this would 100% sell as branded merch. Who wouldnât want to eat their fries with a Forever Fry Fork?! It would also work as a switch to reusable forks in their retail locations if they ever were to do that. But on second thought, not sure how we feel about reusable forks at Shake ShackâŚ
Dill Pickle Califia Farms Creamer: It could very well be their branding, but anything Grilloâs Pickles does we love. Thatâs how we feel about their âDill Pickle Creamerâ with Califia Farms. Wouldnât use it (not that itâs real), but we still love it. Because itâs Grilloâs Pickles. You know what we mean?
Honey, but Make it Heineken Honey Bee-r: This morning, we werenât aware how crazy April Foolsâ Day would get, so we posted about this week being a big week for honey. It probably got swallowed up by all the other news, but regardless, Heinekenâs collab with Mikeâs Hot Honey got us even more excited about this honey takeover situation. Whoâs next?!
A GOOD DAY TO BE A DOG:
Crown Affairâs Hair Care for Pups: The comment section on this post is so relatable. The TLDR: people are saying these dogs have better hair than them, or that they actually look like them. See? Relatable. The more we think about this idea, the more we need Crown Affair to sponsor the National Dog Show this year. All those dog moms would eat this up!
Dogs Should Wear Supergoopâs SPF Too: We spent a large chunk of the day reading about why dogs need SPF (no pet owners here, just FYI). That pretty much explains all the enthusiastic comments on Supergoopâs post, with people saying they would actually buy this "Pup Screen SPF 30" for their dogs if it were real. Seems like a big white space to us...
SkinnyDippedâs Chocolate Bark for Dogs: Before you say anything, SkinnyDipped clarified that the products are made with Carob, so theyâre safe for you and your dogs. We feel like there could have been a stronger April Foolsâ concept to be done here that feels more relevant to their products, but maybe thatâs just us.
BEAUTY BRANDS SHOWED UP:
Tower 28 Beauty Expands Their SOS Line: Tower 28 is heavily investing in marketing their SOS Spray, with collaborations such as Rumble and Kung Fu Panda, as well as a Rescue Station activation in Los Angeles. April Foolsâ marked yet another clever way to promote their SOS line, this time introducing a new extension: the SOS Personal Lube. As expected from SOS fans, everyone wants the lube!
EXPERIMENT Follows Softwear with Hardwear: Coming off of their recent âSoftwearâ launch, EXPERIMENT introduced âHardwear,â designed for men. It is, in their own words, âa lip treatment for men that does not hydrate, exfoliate, or protect your lips, leaving them rough and toughâ just like a man should be đŚž.â The comments section is sending us:
âI really donât think 40% sandpaper is enough gritâ
â??? Missing the Clorox wipe step???â
âFor men who like it rough đŞđźđŞđźđŞđźđŞđźđŞđźđŞđźâ
OUAI TeasesâŚthe Wrong Perfume: OUAI has been teasing the return of their St. Bartâs fragrance for a while, and chose April Foolsâ Day to continue the tease. They posted about bringing back the âShibuya Fragrance,â but of course, everyone flooded the comments saying they want St. Barts instead. They could have done something bigger here, but weâre not disappointed - it feels like a natural extension of their launch campaign.
ENDING WITH A QUICK HOT LIST:
Poppiâs Nostalgic Ring Poppi: Nostalgic ring pops, âRing Poppi,â available in a variety of fruity flavors including: Watermelon, Wild Berry, and Strawberry Lemon.
Ghiaâs Mini 2oz Bottle: Is this their way of gauging product interest because we all know this would sell out instantly.
BODY Vodkaâs Line of Milk Vodka: This is pretty self-explanatory. Itâs described as âlight milkâ made from Vodka. Confused? Think of it as the newest non-dairy milk alternative.
Jolieâs On-the-Go Stanley Cup: Now you can bring Jolie showerheads with you wherever you are in the world, TSA approved!
The Standardâs Le Bain Hot Tub Water: If you know you know. If you donât know, weâre shocked, but watch Saltburn.
Aura Bora Takes on Liquid Death: For some reason, we never put these two in the same category. Maybe thatâs the very point of this post.
Grazaâs Grazushers: Nostalgic fruit gushers in the flavor âPicual Punchâ made with extra virgin olive oil, of course.
Olive & June Take Color to Another Surface: Nothing is worse than painting your walls only to find that it ruined your entire manicure. Say no more, thanks to Olive & Juneâs "Home Interior Paint" collection. Now your mani CAN match your walls.
Chillhouseâs Chill Bling Collection: 24 diamond-covered Chill Tips featuring lab grown diamonds for $15,999! Speaking of an affordable priceâŚ
Last Crumbâs âRolex of Cookieâ Collection: For $12,000, you too can get your hands on 12 micro-batch, Michelin-quality creations made by Last Crumbâs head chef.
Want to submit a pitch? Email (or DM) us: peoplebrandsandthings@gmail.com