April Fools

I didn't realize it was April Fools day today (...although I should have gotten the hint when I woke up in Spring to snow and sleet...) until I signed onto LinkedIn and saw these suggestions for people I might know:

When I was younger, having not noticed this national spoof holiday would have been a blessing... it would have meant that I hadn't been tested or put in a situation of pure embarrassment just yet. Instead, I was just flat out bummed that the most April Foolsy thing that had crossed my path was this lame suggestion to connect with Ernest Hemingway.

Luckily, my morning scaling of industry news, provided me with some entertainment to satisfy my April Fools' tooth. Here are some faves...

1. When you search Google for the font "Helvetica" today (why is anyone Googling Helvetica in the first place?), you'll get your results in Comic Sans (not funny in a HAHA way, more like in a "it hurts to watch" sort of way):

2. Ikea announced a new product to add to its vast Swedish meatball portfolio -- for pets! Why they haven't actually tapped this market is beyond me. I think this spoof product would actually sell if they stamped a yellow sticker on it and gave it a name like "hund stol":

3. More points for Google -- this blog hosts four videos of all of their brilliant AF pranks including Google Motion, Autocomplete, Chromercize, and YouTube's 100th birthday tribute (think about it -- this isn't possibly considering Al Gore invented the internet and he's hardly over 50 yrs). Seriously, what do the staffers at Google DO all day?!

One #fail for Google today is their logo -- no ideas to make this fun today Googlers?

4. The Metro is solving world hunger and feeding all commuters one day at a time... introducing false CSR from @Metro: Edible Newspapers:

5. Scratch and Sniff iPad App from Caffe Nero and iGIZMO -- I wish I was around to see all the people who tried to sniff the pixels! OR, I wish there was a pic of one commuter eating his freebie paper next to a woman sniffing her morning coffee!

6. AA found a way to brand the world by filling one pot hole at a time... we wish this were true:

7. The one that is so TRUE it could be real (more so than Ikea!) is Groupon for Hipsters: http://deals4hipsters.com/

*And this one isn't good at all, but I have to give the alumni shout out... nice try BU, next time ask the grownups for help:

I'm still holding out for one of my coworkers/roommates to WOW me... it's still early/a girl can dream.

...And we're all still hoping the GoDaddy CEO was at least attempting and AF joke when he shot an elephant and then publicized it in a produced video. I'd love to have a chat with his publicity team and hear about the logic there...

***UPDATE***

This is the BEST thing I saw yesterday from Pixar:

Hiptards

After hearing the word hiptard from The Stranger's blog post, I became fascinated with the sub-culture that is all about being obsessed with hipsters.  Seriously, google hipsters and you'll get over 2 million results.  Google "i hate hipsters" and you'll get 600,000.  RIDICULOUS.  

A hipster, according to Urban Dictionary, is "a modern bohemian," "interested in 'artsy things,'" girls with short hair who shop in thrift stores," "kids who listen to underground music," "men who are too skinny and wear girls' jeans," "kids who hang out in coffee shops," "can be described as complicated," "Probably tattooed," "wears the same thing OVER and OVER," "claims to be in a band," "name drops" and "majors in writing, art or queer studies." 

One Urban definition writer sums up my attitude towards hipsters with this: They're quick to call the rest of the world conformists when in reality, they are the ones conforming by partaking in a "too cool for mainstream so i am going to reject it by looking and acting like a grungy asshole" way of life only to seem uber-fashionable. 

Want to laugh at them?  Go to "Look at this F***ing Hipster".  Funny, yet true comments follow images like this:

Good job hipsters.  Basically, you hold yourself up on a pedestal while the rest of us think you're annoying and smell funny.  You are not the Beatniks.  You have yet to make a difference.  You are merely a fashion statement.  

I have an idea, be an individual... not a conformist of the non-conformist culture.  Urban Outfitters is a part of corporate America so stop flashing your 90 dollar faded t-shirt and 30 dollar black manicured nails at us 'mainstreamers' while you block us out with your indie music on too loud out of your corporate apple i-pod.  These things do not make you MORE creative.  It's just sad.

Like I said, hipster is a FASHION.  And although these people are super weird, they did create a statement that looks SO freaking adorable on KIDS.  Seriously, thank you hipsters for your one contribution to life.  These kids look stylish without drowning in GAP and Mary Janes.

    

I think we should make a new rule:  Hipster is only allowed to mean "hip" fashion sense.  Only meant for actually skinny, little kids.  No grown man should share jeans with his little sister.  Let's admit it.  Leggings and sweet shoes look so much better on babies.

So hipsters, I hope you've learned your lesson.  You're a hiptard.  You're a product of corporate, non-corporate America and the only people that like you are the ones just as confused as you.  Get a haircut thats symmetrical, buy some non-faded jeans and call it a day.