20 of the most classic business pranks in history

When April Fools ' Day arrives, many of us will be careful to avoid the mischief in the office. However, companies in the past many years have also created a lot of classic April Fool's jokes. In chronological order, here are 20 of the most interesting pranks I've ever seen.

1955 Reverse Energies (contra-polar energy), Volkswagen Electronics (Popular Electronics): Volkswagen Electronics Magazine published an article about a new energy source called reverse energy, This energy will cause electronic devices to produce the exact opposite of the usual effect. For example, if the energy is used on ordinary lamps, the bulb will be blackened instead of emitting light. Similarly, if the energy is used on a soldering iron or stove, the temperature of these devices will be lower. Reverse energy is said to be the technology invented during the Second World War, but it has only recently been decrypted because it is of value to the general public.

1957 Swiss Harvest, BBC (British Broadcasting Company): The BBC announced that, because of the warm winter climate, the weevil that endangered spaghetti cultivation were completely wiped out, Swiss farmers welcomed the great harvest of pasta. They also broadcast footage of Swiss farmers picking up strips of pasta from trees. A large number of British audiences were cheated. When many viewers called the BBC and wanted to know how to grow their own spaghetti trees, the BBC said, "Put a spaghetti in a jar of tomato sauce and expect good luck." ”

1962 Turn Color TV, Swedish television (Sveriges Television): Swedish television announced that a new technology can allow viewers to turn their existing black and white into color TV. It was an explosive news because Sweden had no color radio and television programmes. Viewers were told that as long as they open up a nylon stockings cover on the television screen, the screen can cause the light to refract in a certain way, rendering the image a color effect. Thousands of viewers believed it and practiced the new "technology" by hand.

1965 Odor Imaging (Smell-o-vision), BBC: BBC broadcast an interview with a professor who claims to have developed some amazing new technology called "odor imagery", a technique that can transmit smells through television broadcasts. Viewers can smell the smell of television studios in their homes, because the machine breaks down the scent into molecular structures and transmits it to the audience through a television screen. He then demonstrated the technique by putting coffee beans and onions into the odor imaging machine. He asked the audience to report whether they smelled the scent. As expected, several audiences across the UK called to confirm that they had clearly smelled the scent. Some people even claim that the taste of onions leaves them with tears.

1973 Write-only Memory, Signetics (Signetics Corporation): Semiconductor maker Signetics Inc. announces the creation of a revolutionary new electronic memory that promises to "improve the quality of life of billions of of people affected by computer data". Unlike ordinary "read-write Memory" and "read-only Memory (ROM)", these memories are the perfect fully encoded write-only memory (abbreviated as WOM). People can write data with this device, but never read it, and become permanently inaccessible to memory (EIS).

1980 Digital "Big Ben", BBC: BBC reports that Big Ben, the UK's iconic building, will be upgraded to show time using a spreadsheet instead. The report also describes nostalgic memories of the world's most famous bell tower, such as the idea that when Big Ben stops moving, the bells will ring 13, not 12. Finally, the BBC announced that Big Ben's hands would soon be no longer useful and would be presented to the four viewers who contacted them first.

1983 Convertible with no fear of rain, BMW (BMW): BMW announces that a car awning designed by the company's engineer, Hell Broen Herr Bl?hn, does not need to be lowered when it rains, as an air-jet device can eject rainwater from above the car. This amazing new system is fully automatic, even when the car is washed to keep the hood in shape.

1985 Genius pitcher Hide Finch (Sidd Finch), Sports Illustrated (Sports illustrated): George Plinton (George Plimpton) tells the tale of Hide Finch, This is the mysterious rookie pitcher of the American Professional Baseball League metropolis. Finch, a British orphan, is said to have "learned the techniques of throwing baseball" from Tibetan monks, pitching at speeds of up to 168 miles per hour and with incredible precision. Plimpton left a few clues in the story, including the initials of each word that could be spelled as "April Fools ' Day" and what the author said in the text: "I believe in seeing is believing!" ”

1992 Welcome to Chicago, Los Angeles Airport: Los Angeles Airport executives laid a 85-foot-long banner on the ground with a 20-foot-high red letter saying "Welcome to Chicago." The banner is placed above the Hollywood Park track, stretching along the flight route to the flight, about three miles from Los Angeles airport. Everyone who arrives at Los Angeles airport by plane may feel a panic, as they look out of the window and think of the wrong city.

1996 Buy Liberty Bell (Liberty Bell), Taco Bell: The company has already bought the Liberty Bell, according to a notice released by the Tower Bell. The announcement reads as follows: "In an effort to help reduce national debt, Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to buy the Liberty Bell, which is one of the most important historical relics in our country. Now the grandfather clock will be named ' Tower Liberty Bell ' and still be visited by the American public. While some may find this controversial, we hope that our move will encourage other companies to take similar actions and do their part to reduce U.S. debt. ”

1996 Blue can Coke Alarm, Virgin Cola (Virgin Cola): Virgin Cola announces that, taking into account the health and safety of consumers, the company has adopted a new technology in the packaging of beverage cans to improve consumer safety standards. When the soft drink expires, the metal in the liquid and beverage cans reacts, turning the outer layers of the beverage cans into bright blue. Virgin Cola also cautioned that consumers should avoid buying all the Blue canned cola. Coincidentally, PepsiCo (PEPSI) had just launched a newly designed canned drink, which, of course, was bright blue. It's a very clever marketing move.

1998 Lefty Burger, Burger King (Burger King): Burger King announces the launch of the new royal Fort, designed for left-handed customers, and publishes a full-page ad to promote the revolutionary burger. The company says the New castle will have all the seasonings rotated 180 degrees, "to redistribute the weight of the burger and tilt the center of gravity to the left." "Reduce the chance of left-handed customers dropping ingredients.

2002 Beep Carrot, Tesco (Tesco): British supermarket chain Tesco announced that the company designed the "beep Carrot" has been successful. This particular breed of carrot has been genetically modified to allow the carrot to grow a plurality of vents on both sides. When the carrot is fully cooked, the vents give the carrot a "97 decibel signal" to remind people to take the carrot off the stove.

2009 Wolf Pigeon Crossover, Qualcomm Inc. (QUALCOMM): Qualcomm announces a bold new way to spread wireless signals-flying wolf pigeon hybrids that can bring wireless signals around the world. According to Qualcomm, hybrids let pigeons have the power of wolves because "we can't let our network transmitters be killed by Wildcats, or freeze to death in cold weather." To prevent the wolves from disobeying orders, the company also plans to breed sharks and falcon hybrids. Then in order to control Shark Hawk (Shark Falcon), Qualcomm's engineers developed plans to nurture the alligator (crocodeagle, Alligator and Eagle hybrids).

2009 Moon and Mars hotel rooms, Hotels.com and Expedia: booking site Hotels.com announces the availability of affordable rooms on the lunar surface. "We believe that living on the moon is really far from the world," the company said. "The rooms they advertised were starting at 800 pounds ($ 1,200), excluding travel costs. Expedia.com not to be outdone, also launched the Mars Hotel ads, starting from $99.

2010 Years of Oversized cups (plenta) and mini cups (MICRA) Coffee, Starbucks (Starbucks): Starbucks announces that it will add two kinds of extreme size new cups for their coffee cup Series: oversized cups (volume 128 liquid ounces) and mini cups (Volume 2 liquid ounces) to meet what they call "Customer needs". The company also recommended other uses for new cups, such as oversized cups that can be used as rain hat, while mini-cups can serve as kitten dishes.

2011 registered "April Fools" trademark, Groupon: Groupon posted a full-network statement announcing the company's purchase of an intellectual property trademark for April Fools ' Day. The site says it will crack down on patent infringement-for example, other people do April Fool's jokes without their permission. And they will launch a number of activities, such as fake patent applications, a test to see if you are cheated on April Fools ' Day, a prank store, and a list of planned pranks for the next 20 years.

2011 Branson bought Pluto, Virgin Group: Virgin Group announced that Sir Richard Branson, founder of the group, decided to buy Pluto and the transaction amount was not disclosed. The aim is to restore Pluto's planetary status. Branson is also building a special spaceship that will help improve Pluto's planetary mass. "The Virgin Group has expanded its business into many areas over the years, but we have never had our own planet," Branson said, "which could pave the way for a new era in space tourism." ”

2012-Designed for puppy glasses, Vaubipac (Warby Parker): Glasses company Vaubipac announced that the company will launch puppy glasses, this series has an appropriate name, called Wabbibach (Warby Barker). These products include single-piece glasses worn by puppies to make them look more honorable. If users love this campaign, when they add $95 of puppy glasses to the online shopping cart, the site pops up "April Fool's joke!" "Prompt.

2013 I want to buy a vowel, Twitter:twitter announced that the site will become a two-tier service. The free version of "twttr" does not support the use of vowels, only allows users to send tweets with consonants, and "Twitter" will become a $5 per month service, support users to enter any letter they like. "Because we put the user first, we believe that the ' Y ' letter should always be free to everyone-from today until forever," Twitter said in the statement, "We are implementing this program because we believe that by cancelling the vowels we will encourage users to adopt more efficient and more ' compact ' forms of communication." We have also seen the opportunity to diversify our sources of income. ”

20 of the most classic business pranks in history