Chocolate Wotsits to Dove Island: The lamest attempts at April Fools’ Day 2021

It’s that time of year where we are forced to become even more sceptical than we usually are with what we read on the internet, for April Fools’ Day is officially upon us. Everyone loves to get in on the action, from small brands to huge publications, however year on year there still happens to be some of the lamest attempts at pranking the nation from people who really should’ve known better.

You’d have thought that the perfect April Fools story had to be at least slightly feasible to really catch people out, but it turns out many blue-ticked Twitter accounts have thrown the whole rulebook out the window today, opting for the most farfetched ideas in the hopes that someone – anyone – will fall for them. But they were wrong. Here are the absolute lamest attempts by brands and publishers to fool people for this year’s April Fools.

Dove Island

Probably the most obvious April Fools joke this year was ITV’s Dove Island, a mock show for pairing birds together to find true love: “Dove Island has been commissioned after a year of lockdown, which has seen the species become so lonely that TV bosses are hoping they can help birds of a feather flock together once again.”

Poor Richard Arnold himself hardly seems convinced by the words coming out of his own mouth. Also, it looks like Springwatch got there first nearly three years ago with their own version:

Dec and Ant

This year Ant and Dec took it upon themselves to get involved in the April Fools fun by announcing that they’d be rebranding as Dec and Ant. Whilst it seems like a pretty obvious joke, it’s fair to say that some people really were reeled in with this one, with one of the commenters calling it a “kick in the teeth”.

“I’m such a big fan of you guys since the 90s and would never doubt anything you do, but this is such a mistake. To be honest it feels like a real kick in the teeth for us loyal fans. Such a shame.”

Hook, line and sinker.

McDonald’s Three Fries portion

What do you do when you order a Maccies and your friend who insisted they didn’t want anything suddenly decides that they want some of your chips? That’s right, you contribute more to the non-recyclable grease-stained food waste by grabbing them a three-chip box! Genius.

Meghan and Harry’s Elvis wedding

“Right, so how do we make a story that is very current, yet will trick the majority of our readership?” was the opening question in the Zoom call discussing The Sun’s 2021 April Fools campaign, yet even this story appears to be doing their audience a huge disservice.

Indeed, although farfetched, it transpires that it was an Elvis lookalike that married the couple after all and not the Archbishop. Whether it’s the crappy photoshop job or the whole concept to begin with, not even those without a calendar were falling for this one.

Subway’s Helping Hand

It’s always the faux “innovative new product” stories that are the easiest to sniff out, and Subway’s 2021 offering is bucking no trends. After thinking up a virtually non-existent problem amongst their consumers, Subway decided it would be funny to invent a “helping hand” to assist you whilst you’re otherwise occupied with your footlong.

I think it’s safe to say from the general lack of comments and likes that this went down as well as a sloppy hungover meatball marinara.

University of Keele Services

This is either an in-joke of mighty proportion amongst Keele Uni students, or they literally thought the best way to advertise their university was to liken it to a shitty motorway service station. Either way, there are lots of unironic 😂😂😂 in the comments and they’ve banged more likes than practically every other brand on this list so who’s the real winner?

Chocolate Wotsits

You know what? Fair play to them. It’s an obvious April Fools, but this is a delightfully gruesome concept and now I can’t wash the taste of the white chocolate Wotsits out of my mouth.

ASOS monochrome print

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And finally, we have ASOS, who treated their Instagram audience with garments printed with their iconic monochromatic packaging design.

I’m going to be honest with you here – I only included this on the list because I wanted you to see it. There is nothing lame about this at all. I’m pretty sure these would sell out immediately.

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