Open mic night for brands.

Open mic night for brands – it was April Fools again, and the annual risk of bombing or bringing the house down.

Done well, it’s a small bit of personality, a reminder there are actual humans behind the logo (or at least one sleep-deprived social media manager with a Canva login).

In a sea of careful, optimised vanilla, a well-judged joke can do more for brand affinity than another polished campaign no one remembers a week later.

It also shows a kind of quiet confidence. You’re willing to be a little playful, to not take yourself too seriously, and to trust your audience will come along with you – or at least not immediately mute you.

Of course, there’s a line.

The obvious risk is tone. If the joke misses the mark or misleads in a way that’s more annoying than amusing, it lands badly. What was meant to humanise ends up feeling like a brand trying to do stand-up for the first time. Brave, but not always advisable.

There’s also the “trying too hard” problem. You can usually tell when something’s been through six rounds of approval and a legal sense-check before being declared “spontaneous”.

But when it works, it works because it feels natural – like an extension of how the brand already behaves, just with a slightly raised eyebrow and a bit more licence to be daft.

A few from this year that made me smile below...