Saturday, April 2, 2011

ThinkGeek Pranksters Strike Again



Everyone loves April Fools Day and so it is no surprise that some of our favorite website joined in on the fun and pulled some pranks of their own. As reported in the article "Shock! Media Actually Comes Up With Decent April Fool’s Jokes" by Adweek some of the websites that jumped in on the fun included Google, Linkedin, Hulu, and Groupon. There are many more websites that attempted to prank visitors that didn't make Adweek's list, including my favorite ThinkGeek.


Since 2001, every April 1st ThinkGeek's front page promotes gag products. This year's round of joke products included a Playmobil Apple Store Playset, Angry Bird pork rinds, am edible Gummy iPhone cover, Minecraft USB Nether Portal, and my personal favorite Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicle. Some of these products are more obviously unreal such as the Minecraft Nether Portal while others such as the Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicles seem completely plausible. The best part about ThinkGeek's April Fools prank is if you really like the product, you can let them know.


Past year's joke products have made it into real production because they were so popular. An example is the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag which is yet another Star Wars product that recreates the scene from The Empire Strikes Back where Luke has to sleep in the belly of a Tauntaun to prevent freezing to death.
Even though joke products are an annual event for ThinkGeek, I personally think they are still quite amusing. Its always fun to see what new wacky things they will come up with. If you want to see all of this year's joke products (as well as some from previous years) visit ThinkGeek.

-M

2 comments:

  1. Ha this is great! I was reading my PR Daily news feed (we have to sign up for it in my other PR class), and one of the articles mentioned being careful online on April Fool's Day. I actually hadn't thought of that (apart from Facebook statuses, that is). P.S. The edible gummy iPhone cover sounds great (if I had an iPhone). Yum.

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  2. Google usually comes through with good jokes on April fools day. They released parody videos on popular memes, my favorite was mocking the keyboard cat meme, and made a "fuglehorn feline" video. Along with a 1911 button that played old time music on the youtube player, it was another funny day from the kings of the internet, Google.

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