All-Fools’ Day. It’s a great opportunity for PRs to drop the pretence of responsible behaviour and unleash the hidden child within, but it takes more than clowning around to produce an effective April Fool’s gag.
April Fool’s humour is an art-form in itself – too outlandish and it will lack the subtlety required to lure the audience in, take the whole thing too seriously and you’ll end up looking awkward and contrived. It’s like a huge open mic night in which people go out of their way to demonstrate how unfunny they are.
Leader in the automotive field is BMW, they’ve made it a key part of their marketing strategy since the year 2000, and even created a section in their BMW Education website to host all their most popular spoofs.
2012 is set to be another bumper year, with several car makers already out of the blocks and one (non automotive prank) I can’t resist sharing from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
You can catch up with all the latest pranks as they happen in our dedicated ‘April Fools’ section, and we’ll also update this article to show 2012’s efforts alongside our favourites from last year.
2012

BMW to be exempt from Australia’s Luxury Car Tax

Build your own MINI Countryman.. from 29,762 individual parts

Honda introduces the Anti-Theft Negotiator

Peugeot launches the first car to change colour with your emotions

HPI helps singles survive the dating scene and avoid a relationship write-off

Lotus F1 Team resolves Kimi Raikkonen’s steering issues

Google announces autonomous race car partnership with NASCAR

Cut price petrol for one day only

MINI launches the new Clubvan Concept

TomTom discovers Darth Vader holds the key to making your children happier

Beat the hosepipe ban with a self-cleaning Subaru

BMW introduces the driverless Running Coach

Richard Branson launches journeys to the centre of the Earth with Virgin Volcanic
2011

Underground-GPS from BMW Australia

Mitsubishi reveals its Evo replacement – the 345bhp i-MiEVO all-electric car

Autoglass pioneers ‘self-repairing’ glass… for phones

Goodwood follows red brick road at the 2011 Festival of Speed

BMW M GmbH develops the world’s fastest pickup

BMW reveals New M3 Royal Edition to commemorate Will & Kate’s Big Day

Land Rover introduces the self-levelling tax disc holder

Kia Motors says NO to pigeon sh!t

SEAT reveals its Media Audio Recognition Technology (SMART) nav system

Mini takes automotive personalisation to new levels

Goodwood uses renewable energy source for its Moving Motor Show
Written By

Steve Davies
Steve is an investor, private equity advisor and former Partner at KPMG, PwC and Bain. Most importantly he's a life-long car enthusiast, mountain biker and active sports enthusiast. He designs and builds technology platforms and is the architect behind Transmission.
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