10 April Fools Email Ideas (+ Real Campaign Examples)

April Fools’ Day email ideas to use in your campaign (with examples by real brands)

Here are some noteworthy design and content ideas you can use for inspiration when creating your April Fools’ Day campaign.

Launch a fake product

It’s been done before and people love it: for example, in 2024, Oreos announced the divorce between wafer and cream and fake-launched two separate products. 

Here is another great example from the grooming brand Supply: they decided to fake-launch a lawn mower so the grass in their customers’ gardens would be as well groomed as customers’ beards. That was, of course, a joke followed up by a great CTA button “Shop real products”. 

Or take a look at this adorable doggy jet pack “introduced” by Little Chonk in 2025:

Promote a prank product customers can buy

Some brands go beyond fake announcements and even let you in on the joke. In 2025, apparel and underwear brand Shinesty pulled off the ultimate prank. They promoted “Inflatabulge Boxers” — a gag gift customers could send to their friends as an April Fool’s Day prank. The pranked friend would first receive a humorous email, followed by the real package in the mail a little later. And the “real package” is no joke! While this approach is extremely risky for many brands, it’s perfectly on-brand for Shinesty.

Of course, this is not your budget-friendly idea, but it’s so cool that we can’t skip it.

Offer a “No joke” discount

Traditionally, companies and brands time their sales to coincide with upcoming holidays. April Fools’ Day is no exception — it’s a chance to get creative and showcase your business in a profitable way. Take a look at this offer from Spyder: they advertised a 100% discount… on delivery. It’s a sweet deal that still carries the spirit of a prank.

Use unexpected or absurd visuals

This goes without saying! Add amusing comics or illustrations, memes, or GIFs to your April Fools email marketing campaigns to take advantage of the occasion.

In this email, nood showed a comical character made almost entirely out of hair. It’s a surprising and eye-catching visual. The email also pokes fun at the company’s competitors showing how unrealistic the brand believes their claims to be.

Create a fake announcement or event

This campaign by Pokémon was named one of the best in 2024 (for April Fools’ Day, of course — not the entire year!). With it, the brand promoted Pokémon Sleep — a real sleep-tracking app, in case you were wondering. 

For the campaign, marketers created a fake event called the Pokémon Sleep Champion Tournament and a video featuring sports-style commentary. It was a clever way to engage the game’s fans.

Use absurd product variations to spark curiosity

Here’s an example of a great copy: just look at the “Mush’s Health” review section in coffee brand Everyday Dose’s April Fools’ email. 

Let’s face it — coffee toothpaste is an amazing idea. An even better idea? Including a “reply corner” to ask for feedback. With enough replies, you could gather inspiration for plenty of great pranks in the future.

Promote unusual uses for your product

Sometimes, you don’t need to create out-of-the-box content — unusual facts about your brand or product can do the trick. That’s the strategy Almond Cow used in their April Fools’ email. 

The brand’s machine allows users to make plant-based milk, so in the email, marketers shared unusual recipes made from unexpected ingredients. It grabs attention and creates just enough intrigue to make readers check those brownies out!

Create a highly realistic fake product page

This April Fools’ campaign goes above and beyond to prove that fake coffee for babies exists. 

The email has believable images and addresses real parents’ concerns — the possible fatigue babies experience staying up all night, and the need to improve their focus and productivity. 

And when subscribers clicked on the CTA (below which is a very small text explaining the joke), they saw a real product page that only revealed the product was fake at the very bottom.

Encourage subscribers to prank their friends

Very often April Fools’ emails prank the subscribers. 

But what if you offer subscribers to prank each other? It can be even more effective — Kelty proves that by displaying the way you can prank a friend using their products. Such an intriguing approach!

Use design and animation to sell the joke

This email is minimalistic and imitates a product launch campaign. What caught our attention was the clever use of a GIF to show the product’s characteristics. The idea itself deserves credit too as it is nice and almost plausible.

April Fools email subject line that increase open rates

According to the Oracle research shared previously, 69% of consumers would open a brand’s email if the subject line was funnier. So the subject line is crucial here, so don’t be afraid of experimenting with it: you can try several different marketing strategies to see which one works best for your audience. 

To make sure that your emails will be open, intrigue the subscribers! Make a crazy or bold statement to surprise them and awaken their curiosity. Take a look at this email Everyman sent on April 1st as a good example. 

Subject line: ✍️ Our new AI pen that writes by itself

Preheader: Experience the future of writing with our AI Grafton

The subject line looks so absurd that it immediately grabs the attention and increases engagement, making the readers open the email to see what’s going on. A clever marketing trick!

Another option is to set up a joke in the subject line and offer a payoff in the preheader. Here is a punny option by a cookware and dinnerware brand:

Subject line: Why do eggs like April Fools’ Day?

Preheader: They like practical yolks!!

You can stick to a more traditional approach by simply using holiday-related words like “prank”, “joke”, kidding”, “fool”, “fun”, and “crazy” in your subject line. It may not be as attention-grabbing as the previous strategies but still performs well.

Here are some examples of the subject lines for your inspiration:

Joke

• No Joke! Open to Reveal Your Exclusive 1-Day Offer…
• It may be April Fools’ Day but our prices are no joke!
• No joke, your April Fools’ Day deal is 40% off!
• Jokes On Us!  Savings Inside
• It may be April Fools’, but we’re not joking…

Prank

• April Fools’’ Day Sale — No Pranks, just Real Offers. This Weekend only!
• 3 Lasting Benefits Of April Fools’ Day Prank Marketing;
• OMG these pranks are too good ??
• April Fools’ prank ideas! + 40% off with code SPRING40
• Prank All Over Me

Fool

• Don’t Be Fooled – This Deal is For REAL
• Ready for April Fools’?
• 15% OFF Online Only! No Foolin’
• Free Shipping All Day — No Fooling!
• No Foolin’! This Deal is Not to Be Missed…
• With Jewelry, We Don’t Fool Around 🤡 (James Allen Rings)
• You won’t be fooled by our mystery bundle 😱(Benefit Cosmetics)

Why April Fools’ emails work so well for marketing

April Fool’s is one of the most creative — and challenging — days in the marketing calendar. On one hand, it allows marketers to explode with creativity. On the other hand, coming up with something both funny and not too offensive is super hard. Here is what a healthy dose of humor can help you with. 

Strengthening brand identity and trust through creativity

Let’s consider hard stats: According to Oracle, 91% of consumers prefer brands to be funny. While we don’t want to overwhelm you with numbers, the data is so fascinating. For example, a whopping 41% would skip the brands that do not make them smile or laugh. And more than 80% are more likely to buy from “funny” brands again and recommend them to their friends and family. It’s not a prank, folks. 

It’s all about emotional connection and happiness. People tend to be overwhelmed with everyday lives. Take the US as an example: Axios found out that just in one year the country dropped from 15th to 23rd place in the World Happiness Ranking. Everyone deserves a break! This is where marketing comes in. 

Boosting engagement and shareability

Funny content, like memes, for example, is highly shareable. 

Humor makes content easier to consume. This is supported by science: in 2021, a study from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ohio State University found that viewers are more likely to share humorously presented news clips and remember content from them compared to non-humorous segments. Humor stimulates activity in brain regions associated with social engagement.

So, a humorous email is more likely to be shared and engaged with by your subscribers. It also might give you some free publicity! Though popularity is tricky: in 2024, British restaurant chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen found itself in rough waters over an April Fools email with the subject line “Order confirmation: 1046758092”. While the brand tried to promote new burger customization options, subscribers were panicking over hacked email accounts. 

How to create an effective April Fools’ email campaign

Humor can boost engagement and improve campaign results. So let’s go over all the steps of creating a humorous marketing email. 

Define your goals

First of all, figure out what goals you pursue in launching this campaign. Do you need to notify the customers about holiday products and promotions? Boost sales? Increase brand awareness? Simply entertain your subscribers and cheer them up? Clearly formulate the objectives of your April Fools’ marketing campaign, and define what success means for you.

Stay true to your brand and keep the joke in tune with your company’s culture. If your company’s tone of voice is usually serious, trying to be funny once a year might come off as awkward and forced. If you’re sending a B2B email marketing campaign, be especially careful and considerate.

Segment your audience

Before you start sending out your campaigns: do some research and think about the customer profile your joke will be addressed to. Yes, you won’t be 100% accurate. It’s impossible to match the joke perfectly to every subscriber. However, such an approach is helpful when it comes to determining how customers will react to the joke and how far you can go. One of the ways you can use segmentation is to specifically target dormant subscribers. An email newsletter with a fun design and subject line might be just what you need to re-engage this part of your audience.

Make sure you’re mobile-friendly

When you think about how to create a“good-looking” email, every detail matters. Stats say that 71% of consumers primarily view emails on their smartphones. So, make sure your digital marketing campaign displays correctly on all types of devices, especially when it comes to templates with GIFs, videos, and complex layouts.

Provide a clever call-to-action

The CTA should be clear and noticeable and a bit festive, of course. Instead of boring “Shop now” and “Visit our website”, you can use more creative variants to boost engagement and increase sales. BarkShop did that in their campaign, jokingly offering subscribers’ dogs to get a job:

It is not necessary to squeeze out something extraordinary if you don’t have any ideas. Here is a fun email from Kate Spade with a classic April Fools-themed copy and a simple “Take a look” button.

Personalize your emails

Personalization is another sure way to enhance customer experience and make your contact with subscribers even deeper. The simplest technique is to include your customer’s name in the email. Although this is a common strategy, it doesn’t work well when users don’t provide their real names. And checking the customer profiles requires resources, so if you decide against it, you can end up with an email like in the example below:

This email has a greeting at the very top that looks a bit strange as instead of their real name, the user seemingly typed in random letters when making a profile. 

If you want to go beyond using a customer’s name, you can also explore other personalization techniques.

Keep it ethical

The downside of humor is that it’s easy to offend people. As we’ve mentioned, coming up with a clever line is hard — even professional comedians spend months crafting new material and still risk being canceled. So keep it light, and test all your fun and creative email ideas first. Try them on colleagues, friends, or trusted acquaintances, preferably from different backgrounds. Are they laughing, or are they about to block your number?

FAQ about April Fools’ Day newsletter ideas

What should you include in an April Fools’ email?

A good April Fools’ email usually includes a playful concept, a surprising subject line, and a clear punchline. Many brands also add a real offer or call-to-action so the campaign drives engagement or sales alongside the joke.

Are April Fools’ email campaigns effective?

Yes, when done correctly. Humorous campaigns often attract higher engagement because they stand out in crowded inboxes. A clever April Fools’ email can boost open rates, increase shares, and strengthen brand personality.

What are good April Fools’ email ideas for businesses?

Popular ideas include launching a fake product, promoting a humorous discount, announcing a fictional feature, or using exaggerated visuals and copy. The key is keeping the joke lighthearted and aligned with your brand voice.

How do you write a good April Fools’ email subject line?

Effective subject lines usually spark curiosity or hint at a joke. Wordplay, emojis, and phrases like “No joke,” “You’ve been fooled,” or “Wait… what?” can encourage subscribers to open the email.

Should April Fools’ emails include real offers?

Many brands combine humor with real promotions. For example, a campaign might start with a fake announcement and reveal a real discount or product recommendation at the end.

April Fools’ email campaign checklist

A touch of humor can add new dimensions to your campaign and earn you better results, but only if used appropriately. Before sending your April Fools’ Day email, make sure you:

• Define your goals — choose the key pros of launching your campaign, and build your strategy based on these goals.
• Make sure that your audience reacts to the prank properly — do some research before you start sending out your campaigns, and think about the customer profile your joke will be addressed to.
• Create a catchy email — choose an attention-grabbing subject line, use a prominent CTA, and check whether your campaign is mobile-friendly.

When planning your campaign, you can also keep these ideas in mind:

• Don’t be afraid to show your sense of humor. Use puns, play on words, bright pictures, or tell funny stories — it depends on your taste and the company’s tone of voice.
• Offer special discounts and deals. April Fools’ Day is a chance to be more creative in your promotions and show your business in the most profitable way possible.
• Try creating a fake product. It makes the readers curious and forces them to open the email to see what’s in it.
• Use funny visuals. Grab subscribers’ attention with colorful and humorous illustrations to create a festive atmosphere.

A half-hearted attempt to capitalize on April Fools’ Day won’t get your emails noticed. So try to add some personal approach to your campaign, and you’ll definitely get incredible results.