I’ve never been a fan of sending out spoof press releases for April 1 - and the Assocation of British Drivers reveals two of the problems in my view:
(1) They have to be genuinely funny
(2) They should not be dated 2 April
As I’ve discussed before, spoofing is an art - as the BBC explains including a link to the ultimate April Fool gag of the spaghetti tree from 1957.
Yes indeed, that is a really dreary hoax, ripe with self-satisfaction, predictable and - as you say - a day late.
It’s seems it might be worth avoiding the day entirely for breaking a news story - particularly if you are the type of innovative company partial to the type of attention grabbing stories that could be easily mistaken for an april fools story on the day.
I read that both computer games company SEGA and the EMI-Apple http://news.com.com/2061-10799_3-6172341.html announcement on de-restricting some music downloaded through iTunes had to be reiterated as bona fide.
Agree - I heard a journalist on the radio yesterday saying that some real stories are so bizarre that it was hard to tell the spoofs from the genuine news.