Madison Avenue Springs April Fool’s Pranks Early

By now, it has become commonplace for marketers and advertising agencies to “front-run” holidays and big calendar events, starting their campaigns centered on Christmas, the Super Bowl or the back-to-school shopping season earlier each year.

For 2013, it seems, April Fool’s Day can be added to that list, as waiting until April 1 to spring pranks on unsuspecting consumers becomes increasingly passé. The reason for the April Fool’s front-running is the same as the reason for the front-running of other noted days: the ability of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to convey and amplify marketing messages.

For instance, two major marketers started their April Fool’s jokes last week. (Or, officially, it ought to be said, seem to have started them, in that neither is talking about whether their announcements were the real deal or tomfoolery.)

One company, Procter & Gamble, along with several of its agencies, introduced a Web site, a video clip on YouTube and a Twitter hashtag for a new variety of Scope mouthwash called Scope Bacon, billed as the mouthwash “for breath that sizzles.”

Bacon-flavored mouthwash Really It appears that America must wait until Monday to find out if Procter is pulling its collective leg â€" or, perhaps, pulling on a pig’s foot.

The other marketer, the American Eagle Outfitters retail chain, introduced what it described as a line of Skinny Skinny jeans for young men and women, billed as “our skinniest fit yet.”

But in a video clip on YouTube, the models appear to be wearing body paint rather than pants. And on the retailer’s Web site, there are cans of paint labeled “Skinny Skinny,” in two colors, at the preposterous price of $49.95.

Again, American Eagle cautioned patience to those waiting for an explanation.

Some potential pranksters that pulled forward their mischief at least had the courtesy to label what they had planned as related to April Fool’s Day. One was CBS, which issued a news release on Tuesday that the April 1 episodes of “The Price Is Right” and “Let’s Make a Deal” would have April Fool’s Day themes.

In other instances, April Fool’s jokes were shared with reporters on Friday with the proviso that they be embargoed until Monday.

One example was a mock news release from the New York office of the Mother advertising agency, announcing that Mother New York had been named the “new agency of record” for the shadowy conspirators known as the Illuminati after the mysterious organization spent “nearly 237 years” with its previous agency.

(Maybe the release is real in that, as is the case with so many announcements about ad accounts changing hands, Mother New York omitted the name of the previous agency.)

Munchkin, a maker of products for babies and children, is to announce on Monday an imaginary product named Naughty Mouth soap, “to make your point when baby’s language isn’t the cleanest.” Flavors are to include lying liver and whining wasabi.

And the Professional Association of Diving Instructors is to announce on Monday an April Fool’s addition to its offerings: scuba diving certification for dogs and cats.