In true spirit, The Practice team were greeted yesterday by several April Fool’s Day pranks- some more welcome than others! (Cab drivers it ceases to be funny when you’re running late and told the taxi’s out of fuel!) With this in mind, we look at the brands ringing in the new month with a prank or two!

Many of the world’s biggest brands celebrated April Fool’s Day in style with some innovative marketing pranks. In the name of good humour, Virgin Atlantic produced one of our favourite stunts with their “glass bottom airplanes”. Richard Branson took to his blog, stating: “I’m thrilled to announce that Virgin has created another world-first with the introduction of technology required to produce the world’s first glass-bottomed plane.” Alongside the entry boasted photos of the impressive cabin and exterior complete with glass panels down the centre aisle. The spoof, designed to introduce passengers to an “unparalleled flying experience” does have a serious point too, as it was also an attempt to draw consumer attention to the airline’s new UK flight service.

Perhaps the most creative April Fool’s prank was seen from Google with their Google Maps “Treasure Mode” stunt. The team produced a YouTube video explaining they had uncovered a treasure map containing clues, and it was up to us to help decipher them. Users can click on “Treausre Mode” for both Google Maps and Street View, which have been transformed with themed designs. And this was only one in a line-up of Fool’s Day pranks from the online giant; Google also had fun adding further options to its “I’m Feeling Lucky” button with “I’m Feeling Wonderful” and “I’m Feeling Hungry”. The final fake products in its list were Gmail Blue, where all your email settings are blue, and Google Nose, which allows users to “search” for smells!

We hate to admit it, but the prank we actually fell for was Twitter’s somber announcement that tweeted vowels would be chargeable at a rate of five dollars per month. The micro-blogging site stated that enabling users to only have consonants at their disposal would “encourage a more efficient and “dense” form of communication”, as well as diversifying their revenue stream. They are a cheeky bunch, aren’t they?!

YouTube’s stunt was also pretty believable, had it not been for the “Happy April Fool’s Day 2013” line emblazoned across the top of their video prank. The team uploaded a video claiming that they were to close down the video-sharing site until 2023 after selecting their best video of all time. After this, they would delete all other footage and relaunch in ten years time solely showing the winning entry. The Practice team definitely recommend checking out YouTube’s stunt if you’re after some enjoyable viewing; footage of a thirty thousand-strong team short listing absurd-sounding videos makes for an entertaining watch!

Did you have an enjoyable Bank holiday Easter break? And were you inspired to pull off some memorable April Fool’s Day pranks? Please tweet your stories to us @PracticeDigital and share them on our Facebook page.