It has become sort of a trend for some tech companies to participate in April Fools’ Day pranks. One could say that this harmless fun hurts nobody but often their attempts at forced humor leave a lot to be desired. Microsoft is reportedly leading the way this year by banning its own corporate pranks.
An internal memo seen and verified by The Verge has Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela warning all employees that they are not to participate in April Fools’ Day hoaxes come Monday. The memo adds that “data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles.”
Capossela has also urged all teams at Microsoft to not participate in any public-facing April Fools’ Day pranks as well. “I appreciate that people may have devoted time and resources to these activities, but I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny on this one day,” he adds.
Google regularly pulls April Fools’ Day hoaxes but it was forced to apologize once after threads were muted as a prank which caused a lot of problems for Gmail users. Whether or not Google will follow suit this year remains to be seen.
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