Our social media marketing maven Kat C. sent me a note the other day, it went something like this…
(OK, actually this is pasted straight from the email)…
We’re developing a quick and fun April Fools Day prank for social media next Monday. We’ll “introduce” a new hard drive that’s also a game controller.
I wanted to see if you could help us with a supporting blog post, that instantly reveals that it’s an April Fools joke.
Something like:
We hope you enjoyed our April Fools prank, although the concept of portable gaming is not entirely off!
Our game drives are designed to store all your favorite games and easily make room for new ones. Take it with you and play your games on friends’ consoles!Is this something we can develop by end of week? Doesn’t have to be a long post, but we want to instantly reveal it’s a joke on our blog.
Thank you,
Kat
Doesn’t Kat sound like a great co-worker? If you said “yes” you’d be right.
So we proceeded to bat around the idea, and how to share it with you all… I offered some of my typical unsolicited instantaneous (slapdash) advice from on high …
Yup.
I like that it’s a universal game controller — that could get gamers super excited for just a half second…
These April 1 jokes seem to get the best consumer engagement when they make fun of ourselves. Or offer a fake product people REALLY want, but is too good to be true. Or take the joke to an absurd level.
This one could do it all!
You might make it even more absurd. Call it “universal” even for classic consoles … N64, Sega Genesis, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey. And even full-size coin-op games like Marble Madness, Berzerk, Qbert and Pong!!
— JP
Great ideas, amiwrong???
But then Kat sent this curveball:
Slight change of plans with the design.
The Creative team suggested we make it a portable gaming device instead, loaded with all the classics and much more.
They said it’s harder to make our drives look like a controller… but they can easily add a cool screen and components that make it look like a gaming device.
Everyone ok with this direction?
Kat
Sudden change? No big deal — of course this is what happens, when we try to throw down in just a few days, oops…
But this was great — because it gave me another chance to get all high-and-mighty with the best ideas!
Your call, but tbh — a portable game device is maybe too believable and not at all absurd.
Like, we came up with a toy people will really want — that we really could build — then we just say “psych!!”
DO WE WANNA DISAPPOINT THE FANZZZZ!??
Seems to me the best product jokes are about a gadget everyone wants but it’s too outlandish to be true. Or just a totally bizarre “product.”
To me the image of a hard drive with only 2 thumbsticks and 4 buttons on top is absurdly funny.
[see how great my sense of humor is? I’m a natural comic. -ed]Or we could go in a totally different ridiculous direction. Something like:
“Extraordinary new backup service saves your data on separate media! All your hard drive and cloud collections are backed up on fine 25% cotton linen parchment media, stored for future generations in massive multi-shelf racks with a unique numbered catalogue index” or something ridiculous like that.
[like that idea’s never been done, right…? -ed]— JP
So, we had like, a day left to design an image and some copy … and I suggest we start fresh. Pretty smart right?
Luckily our mutual boss Peter chimed in from vacation with his typical cool head:
Hehe – I really like this.
My POV, you think too much, folks will get it. It’s April Fools, do it!
Well, we hope you enjoyed the fever dream. And I hope Peter’s right.
