Why April 1 isn’t so foolish

April Fools Day seemed particularly remarkable for marketers this year, not because of the number of pranks that brands pulled on consumers, or even the number of pranks that went viral, but because of the number of pranks that were actually *really* good ideas and perhaps shouldn’t be left as pranks.

So what is it about April Fool’s Day that causes so many great ideas to surface?

Lateral thinking guru, Dr Edward De Bono, has for years advocated humour as a source of lateral thinking and innovation. Humour connects two seemingly unconnected ideas in a way that is obvious in hindsight, but not apparent from the outset. Humour allows the storyteller to suspend a willing audience in disbelief, thereby lowering the risk of a ‘fail’ – since everyone accepts that it was ‘just’ a joke.

And even simpler than that, in this Connection Economy that we all now live in, pranks have an important quality that can’t be replicated – pranks prove to us that you’re human.

Perhaps everyday should be April Fools Day.

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