It appears April Fools day is a no-go for Microsoft, or at least in the corporate workplace. The company’s marketing chief Chris Capossela has warned all of the company’s employee base to basically forget about participating in the humorous and sometimes annoying jokes that come with April 1.
The Verge was able to get their hands on and verify an internal memo, in which Capossela explains that:
It’s that time of year when tech companies try to show their creativity with April Fools’ Day stunts. Sometimes the outcomes are amusing and sometimes they’re not. Either way, data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles.
Considering the headwinds the tech industry is facing today, I’m asking all teams at Microsoft to not do any public-facing April Fools’ Day stunts. 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.
April Fools, as hilarious as it can be, has a way of getting out of hand. Microsoft and Google have been known to take their shenanigans to even their marketing fields at times (remember Scroogled?), with the Redmond-based tech giant humorously mocking the search engine of the latter company on that very day.
That said, it’s easy to understand how the holiday can get the best of us. Luckily for you, On MSFT remains committed to serving fresh and truthful news 365 days a year, with zero grams of April Foolishness.
