With every brand jumping on the April Fool’s bandwagon, April is arguably the hardest month of the year to cut through the masses when it comes to PR campaigns. Despite this, there were some brands that went above and beyond to create standout campaigns that had what it takes to make it into the spotlight.

We’re analysing our favourite campaigns that stood out this month. From AI inspired campaigns to mouth watering foodie brand collabs, we were not short of choice this April.

Real Cost of Beauty 

Dove is back at it with a thought provoking campaign tackling toxic beauty standards. As part of their ‘Real Cost of Beauty’ campaign which initially launched in 2005, this month Dove developed their pre existing campaign creating another show stopping addition to the collection of hard hitting ads. 

Recent studies found that 50% of children said that social media makes them and their peers feel anxious and many have been exposed to ‘body transformation’ posts.

This month, Dove released an eye opening video that details one young girl’s battle with an eating disorder, which seems rooted around the time spent on her phone. The campaign contains sensitive content and is designed to be very hard hitting, using a real life case study to really get the message across. 

In the week previous to this, we also saw the brand build a billboard in Canada made entirely of syringes to highlight the number of teens that are getting injectables to change their faces in line with beauty ‘trends’. The billboard consisted of over 50,000 syringes, highlighting how many cosmetic injectables were performed on Canada’s teens last year.

Dove consistently highlights their values with these hard hitting campaigns. Not only do they continue to secure coverage from leading publications and create a social media buzz, they also continue to build a strong reputation as a brand who really care about their consumers which, in an oversaturated market, can make all the difference. 

AI creates the perfect James Bond

Video game company Unwind Media enlisted the help of DeepDream artificial intelligence software to manufacture the ideal 007. Using the current requirements for the role, set out by producer Barbara Broccoli in August last year, AI generated the ‘perfect’ James Bond which just so happens to be of uncanny resemblance to actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson who was coincidentally already on fans shortlist of Hollywood heartthrobs rumoured to be in the running for the role.

AI, along with speculation over the next James Bond, has been the talk of the month, so it’s nothing short of genius to tie the two conversations together with a highly relevant campaign. 

Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries

We love a foodie campaign here at Flaunt and it doesn’t get much better than a mashup of two beloved brands revealing a product launch.

Fast food giant Burger King launched its limited edition Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries in collaboration with Doritos, thrilling foodies across the nation with a brand new product. The chicken fries, which are sprinkled with Doritos’ renowned orange dusting, are the second collaboration between the two brands, who released Whopper-flavoured Doritos in March.

Burger King strategically timed this to land on April Fool’s day, prompting the conversation as fans speculated on whether this was an April’s Fools or the real deal. Many social media users left comments on the reveal which helped spark the excitement and buzz.

One user commented ‘I know it’s an April Fools, but this would be top tier’, with another commenting ‘I get that this is probably an April Fools but you guys should really make this, it sounds amazing’.

Gaining inspiration from the viral TikTok trend of coating chicken in smashed Doritos, this is a perfect example of two brands listening to their audience to create a brand collab that just works. 

The campaign has landed well with the public, going viral on social media and earning a respectable amount of links in leading publications. There’s no doubt this brand collab boosted revenue this month – who could miss out on these two tasty brands partnering up?

There are so many strategic aspects to this campaign that we just can’t get enough of – and the chicken fries aren’t bad either! 

See My Pain

Nurofen released a campaign addressing the gender pain gap with a hard hitting message. The campaign confronts an issue that many women have when seeking help for pain; being accused of overreacting and not being taken seriously.

The campaign features a short film made up of six women talking about their real experiences of being dismissed due to their gender when seeking help for chronic pain. The hard hitting campaign came off the back of a recent survey carried out by Nurofen which revealed that over 50% of women surveyed said they have felt ignored or dismissed by their GP when it came to pain – with this figure standing at 36% for men.

To further communicate the campaign’s key message, Nurofen created graphics of imitation products that bring to life the most common dismissals that women deal with when trying to express the pain they feel; such as “it’s all in your head”, or “maybe you’re stressed”.

The campaign brings to light a very serious issue that is not often acknowledged. Not only have they created a short film that evokes empathy, the graphics that work alongside are simple but effective in drilling the message home with just a short, simple sentence.  

We love a campaign that addresses real issues and we are a big fan of this example.

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