It's Still April Fools' Day on Social Media

New York Times

01-04-2025

April 1 always seems to begin with social media users reminding everyone that it's April Fools' Day.
At this point, do we really need a reminder? Brands and celebrities give it a go every year, often with extremely elaborate posts that fool almost no one.
From truly outlandish ideas, like the French embassy claiming the Louvre Museum would be turned into a Bass Pro, to ones that seem reasonable, like 'The Great British Bake Off' adding air-conditioning to its tents, Tuesday has been a day of briefly raised eyebrows followed by a slight nod as you return to scrolling.
Here's some of the posts that have stood out from the pack, for better or worse.
Mayonnaise Made of Breast Milk?
Few food items have inspired as much social media discourse as the $19 strawberry — yes, a single strawberry — that Erewhon, a grocery chain in Southern California, imports from Japan. Welch's, known for its tiny packs of fruit snacks, showed some internet fluency by lampooning that concept with their '$19 Welch's Fruit Snacks Single Strawberry.' The post, which has been up for a few days, encourages people to 'indulge in the ultimate, single-bite experience — because some moments are too precious to share.'
Molly Baz, who had a 'provocative' — and earnest — Times Square billboard for a lactation cookie recipe briefly removed last year, took to Instagram on Tuesday morning to post about how she produces so much breast milk that she is rolling out a line of breast milk mayonnaise made with her excess supply. She added that 'for obvious reasons this is a limited run — we've got about 500 bottles so first come first serve till they're gone.' Another sign it was fake: Most mayo does not contain milk.
In at least one case, a company created a fake product that people actually wanted. Cadbury, which is known for Easter treats, posted about Creme Egg on the Goo, which is a to-go packet of Creme Egg filling. The post began with the message 'Move over boring condiments,' and included a video in which the sugary substance is squeezed onto French fries. The comments section had numerous people saying they would love this product — but not on fries.
Understand Your Dogs
The gaming brand Razer tackled Gen Alpha slang with a YouTube video for the Razer Skibidi, which it said was 'the world's first A.I.-powered brainrot translator headset.' The headset can translate what others are saying and will also convert anything you say into something more brainrot appropriate. Very sigma.
ElevenLabs, a software company that developed various text-to-speech and speech-to-text models, said it was taking 'one small step for man, and one giant leap for man's best friend' with Text to Bark AI, the world's first text-to-speech software — for dogs.
Nothing, a tech gear company, posted a video on X of Ear (3.5mm), a pair of headphones that has a 50-meter cord. The company called the product 'beautifully inconvenient.'
Decidedly Random
If you have to immediately say you were telling a joke, it wasn't a very good one. So consider the fact that Tiger Woods waited only six minutes before revealing his post about his imminent return from injury was an April Fools joke. The quick reveal could have been influenced by the commentator Jason Whitlock congratulating Mr. Woods, declaring the news 'amazing' and 'unreal' in two different posts before admitting 'he got me.'
In a collaborative effort they said could 'turn 'oops' into 'ooh la la,'' Josh Cellars wines and Joss and Main furniture showed off a couch and a chair that came with a design that looks like stains from a glass of red wine. Adding some cringe, Joss and Main then commented on the post, saying, '#justjoshing you.'
It can be hard to tell what is real or fake in the world of cryptocurrency, but Kent Fuchs, the interim president of the University of Florida, tried to have some fun with a video about his school introducing its own meme coin, Foxy Gator or FXG. He had plenty of help from other university employees, and in case anyone was fooled, he reveals toward the end of the video that the point of the coin is to 'Fund Kent's Retirement.'
Timing Is Everything
Duolingo, the language-learning app, had a fairly solid April Fools concept that it let play out — in February. The app declared on Feb. 11 that its cartoon mascot, Duo, had died. 'Tbh, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what do we know,' it said,
The prank received a lot of attention, with the pop star Dua Lipa being among those to mourn Duo, saying 'Til' death duo part.' A few weeks later, the company brought Duo back to life.
As far as brand attempts to get attention go, the stunt worked well. But it left Duolingo with a fairly uninspired effort for April Fools' Day: The company posted a video on Tuesday about the Duolingo World Cruise, where you will learn to speak like a local 'everywhere you go,' as a result of the cruise's taking five years.