April Fools

Some companies like Google, Skype and Axe (just to name a few) aired some April Fool's day ads for some pretty cool, but fake products. Axe came up with this ad for the Lynx Spray App. An app which you can scroll through colognes and instantly spray your choice scent directly from your phone. You can view the video below:

Ads like these are often funny and entertaining and they indirectly market a product with  a slightly different name (like Lynx instead of Axe) which is great for those who know the particular product is fake. This is because the company is making money off the ads from those consumers who know that the product being marketed is actually something different than what is being shown. But for those who have no idea that these products are fake, I don't think that they would be helping the company make any profits. Perhaps the companies could be focusing their marketing on something other than fake ads... Or maybe these companies have a lot of spare money floating around.

 

Can you see any issues for the companies which choose to air these April Fool's ads? Are there any benefits?