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April Fools’ Day: Companies get in on the joke

SINGAPORE — Better watch out — April Fools’ Day is here again. Many brands and companies — including YouTube and Google — got in on the joke today (April 1), with various pranks and easter eggs designed to confound and delight audiences. Here’s a list of what they pulled off:

SINGAPORE — Better watch out, April Fools’ Day is here again. Many brands and companies, including YouTube and Google, got in on the joke today (April 1), with various pranks and easter eggs designed to confound and delight audiences. Here’s a list of what they pulled off:

1. Google — Pokémon and “Shelfies”

Google filled its Maps app on Android and iPhone with the iconic creatures from the Nintendo game and challenged users to “catch ‘em all” in the “Pokémon Challenge”.

In a video uploaded to the Google Maps YouTube channel, Google said: “Today we are announcing a new job role and challenge — Pokémon Master. Pokémon Masters are the world’s greatest digital explorers, and their passion for exploring will take our maps to the next dimension.”

Users can hunt through locations all over the world, from Japan to Switzerland, to find and collect various Pokémon to gain the coveted title of “Pokémon Master”

Gmail, meanwhile, introduced the Shelfie — short for Shareable Selfie — where the self-obssessed were encouraged to turn their selfies into shareable Google themes so that friends and acquaintances “can enjoy checking, reading, and writing emails while seeing your friendly face in the background.”

2. Poached magazine — In-N-Out Burger Franchise

Poached announced that the famous king of burger chains, In-N-Out Burgers Inc, would be bringing its franchise to Singapore by the first quarter of the year.

Although the no details of the location were given, Poached announced that a year’s supply of In-N-Out could be won by three lucky fans. Free-flow of fountain drinks, thick milk shakes and burgers that are assembled a la minute — sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Too bad it isn’t real.

 

3. Youtube — “No more vlogs”

YouTube declared that they will no longer allow videos made by bloggers, saying in a statement: “We are removing all home-made ‘video-diary’ style entries on our hosting sites as they are no longer part of our core content”.

Does their new rule mean that YouTube personalities like Dee Kosh and MunahHirziOfficial have to find an alternative career path?

Very funny, YouTube,

4. Redbull — “Merlion X Red Bull Pump”

Something smells fishy in here.

Red Bull announced that the iconic Merlion would spout 20,000 litres of Redbull this afternoon between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.

The Merlion statue at One Fullerton had been undergoing maintenance for the past two weeks. Red Bull said that, to celebrate the re-activation of the tourist landmark, they had been granted permission by the authorities to inaugurate the newly-installed water pump with litres of their energy drink.

Attendees to the event were advised to bring along mugs and water flasks to collect as much Red Bull as they could, for free. Red Bull also said that there would be sampans on site to allow fans to retrieve the energy—drink spewing into the harbour.

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