10 of the Best April Fool's Day Hoaxes Ever

It's a day of light-hearted fun that everyone can get involved with - whether they're the prankster or the victim! And so to inspire you this April Fool's Day, we've done our research and gathered some of the best April Fool's Day pranks in history.

If you're planning your own plank, take note, as these are definitely the best judging by their creativity, historical significance and the number of people duped! 

10. Blue Can Warning

On April 1st 1996, Virgin Cola ran an ad in the British newspapers announcing a new technology that was to be integrated into their cans in interest of consumer safety. It claimed that when the cola passed its sell-by date, the liquid would react with the metal in the can, turning it bright blue. The tag line read, "if the can turns blue the cola's gone flat". Coincidentally, Pepsi had just revealed their newly designed cans... Which were bright blue! Naught, Virgin! 

9. No-Hole Polo Mints

In 1995, the guys behind the recognisable Polo Mints ran ads in British newspapers announcing that "in accordance with EEC Council Regulation (EC) 631/95" they would no longer be producing mints with holes. Existing hole-y mints would require a conversion kit that include hole fillers to be placed inside each Polo mint. 

8. The Tasmanian Mock Walrus

On April 1st 1984, the Orlando Sentinel featured a story about a creature known as the Tasmanian Mock Walrus that many people in Florider were said to be adopting as a pet. The creature was described a four inches long, resembled a walrus, purred like a cat and had the temperament of a hamster. The ideal pet, of course! Nonetheless, the image that ran with the article looked suspiciously like a Naked Mole Rat.

7. Athens Pollution Alert

Now this isn't that fun, but notorious nonetheless. In 1982, on April 1st, Greece's state-controlled National Radio Network issued a warning that pollution had reached emergency levels, and that downtown Athens would need to be immediately evacuated. All schools were instructed to close, and children were to be sent home. Since pollution in Athens was and still is a serious issue, a lot of people took the broadcast seriously... Only for the station to retract the warning three hours later, revealing it to be an April Fool's Day prank. One man sued the network for $820k for causing him mental distress! Oops! 

6. Why Doesn't America Read Anymore?

Back in 2014, on its Facebook page, NPR News shared a link to an article with the title, "Why Doesn't Americans Read Anymore?" Understandably, the link generated a lot of comments; some agreed, others disagreed. Of course by commenting, a lot of individuals had unknowingly demonstrated the relevance of the question by failing to take the time to click on the link and read the article. If they had, they would have discovered the April Fool's reveal and instructions if you had read it. 

5. The Derbyshire Mummified Fairy

In 2007, a gentleman named Dan Baines posted on his website images of an 8-inch, winged creature, and explained that he had been found by a Derbyshire man while out walking his dog, who the fetched it to Mr Baines for analysis since he was known as the local paranormal expert. Thanks to the Internet, the image went viral and his site received thousands of visitors per day. Some individuals even wrote to him claiming they had found something similar. But at the end of the day on April 1st, Mr Baines admitted it was all a hoax! 

4. Big Ben Goes Digital

In 1980, on April 1st, the BBC's overseas news service reported that Big Ben was going to be given a digital readout. The "news" segment included nostalgic stories about the world famous clock, and at the end claimed that the first four listeners to contact them would receive one of the four analog hands. 

3. Contra-Polar Energy

Back in 1955, the Popular Electronics included an article about "contra-polar energy", a type of negative energy that would cause electrical devices to produce the opposite effect of what they would normally do... Or so it claimed. For instance, if a contra-polar energy was applied to an ordinary table lamp, the bulb would case darkness instead of light. Heated items would turn cold, instead. Of course, anyone quick enough would have realised the subheading of the article, which stated "in keeping with the first day of April..." 

2. The Body of Nessie Found

On April 1st 1972, newspapers around the world reported the sensational news that the dead body of the Loch Ness Monster had been found. A team of zoologists from Yorkshire Flamingo Park Zoo had come across it while working in the Loch. When in fact, it was a poor bull elephant seal that had passed earlier that week in Dudley Zoo. Flamingo Park's education office had shaved off its whiskers, padded its cheeks with stones and kept if frozen before dumping it in the Loch as part of the April Fool's prank on his colleagues. Laughter soon stopped once the police became involved...

1. Instant Colour TV

In 1962, Sweden's SVT (Sveriges Television) brought their technical expert, a man named Kjell Stensson, onto the news to inform the public that, due to a new technology, viewers could quickly and easily convert their existing black and white television sets to colour. All viewers had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their TB screen, and the mesh would bend the light so that the image would appear in colour. Much to their dismay, it of course didn't work. Colour broadcasts only began in Sweden on April 1st, 1970.

All images and information sourced from Hoaxes.org