April Fools' Day Cartoons

April Fools' Day: Historic Pranks

Millionaire auctions off iceberg: in 1978, a businessman and adventurer named Dick Smith announced he would be towing an iceberg from Antarctica to break into smaller cubes for sale. He advertised that these Antarctic ice cubes would freshen the taste of any drink for the price of ten cents a cube. The media was on site in the Sydney Harbor to report on the barge towing the iceberg, which was revealed to actually sheets covered with shaving cream and fire extinguishing foam.

The Derbyshire Fairy: Lebanon Circle Magik Co. (which should have been the first clue) posted a picture of what looked like a small mummified fairy on their website in 2007, stating that a man had found the creature while walking his dog out in the country. The photo attracted thousands of visitors to the sites and resulted in many interested emails. But on April 1st, the site's owner admitted the creature was an April Fools' hoax. However, the most interesting part of this story is that many continued to contact the website stating that they did not believe that the fairy was fake.

Big Ben Goes Digital: The BBC reported in 1980 that the famous Big Ben clock tower would be converted to a digital clock in order to modernize the tower's look. This outraged many citizens, as the clock tower was a historical part of London's culture. BBC Japan even offered the clock hands in a contest to the first four callers, which actually resulted in some bidding.

  

Loch Ness Monster Found: In 1972, a photo surfaced that the Flamingo Park Zoo in Yorkshire claimed to be the body of the Lock Ness Monster, discovered by a team of zoologists at Loch Ness. However, upon further inspection, the photo appeared to be of a seal. The zoo's education officer eventually confessed to the hoax, saying that he'd placed the seal in the water after shaving its whiskers.

Sweden Covers their TVs in Tights: in 1962, Sweden's only television channel announced that the station could be viewed in color if one cut up tights and placed it over the television's screen, which would bend the television's light to make it appear in color. Thousands of Swedes cut up stockings and taped them over their television only to realize they were victims of a hoax.

The Earth Loses Gravity: in 1976, BBC Radio 2 reported that due to rare astronomical alignment of Pluto behind Jupiter, the Earth's gravity would decrease. Listeners were told to jump in the air at 9:47 AM to take advantage of this, which would result in a floating feeling. Many reported that they had felt this floating sensation, one even stating that she and her friends lifted from their chairs to float around the room together.

Home Grown Spaghetti Trees: one of the most famous April Fools' pranks occurred in 1957, when BBC news program Panorama reported on Switzerland's spaghetti harvest. The region's mild winter and lack of natural spaghetti pests allowed for the fruitful production of home-grown spaghetti. The BBC received many calls from people interested in growing their own spaghetti, who were told that they should place a sprig of spaghetti in tomato sauce.
 
http://www.wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm

Rock Social Media in 30 minutes a day

Marketing Tasks

 
A successful business depends on well-planned and well-executed marketing.

There are so many different chores in the marketing department that it’s difficult to list them all without writing a full length novel. Some things can be automated or delegated, but there are still plenty of marketing tasks that simply will not handle themselves.

Which marketing tasks should always be at the very top of your list? Here’s a few you might consider. Leave these things off your list, and you may see your business decline.

• Client face-to-face meetings – This is generally one that the manager responsible for the account should not delegate. Talking to the client and finding out what best meets their long term goals and finding out what improvements can be made to the product or service from the customer’s perspective is not something that should be taken lightly or passed along. It’s very important to put your best marketing face forward when meeting with the customers, and make sure to listen to and understand their most pressing marketing needs.

• E-mail campaigns – This is still one of the most cost-effective ways of getting your marketing message out to your target market. Of course, creating an email campaign assumes you’ve taken the time to build a targeted list, but we thought we’d squeeze both of those into a single point. Less messy.

• Market research – All marketing professionals know that researching the market for which their products or services are targeted is essential to success. This goes hand-in-hand with being able to craft your message appropriately. Know your audience and dramatically increase your chances of being well received by them.

• Regular publishing – Blog posts, videos, articles, and press releases are all fantastic ways to pass along information about your product or service. Even micro-blogging, or making use of services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social platforms can extend your marketing reach with a minimum investment of time and money.

• Paid advertising – From pay-per-click to banner ads and mobile marketing, paid ads work. There are few successful businesses of any size that can afford to ignore the possibilities of online marketing with paid ads.

Adapted from http://ww21.calvertcreative.com/

Easter Vocabulary

Do you celebrate Easter in your culture? Learn about this important holiday that is celebrated by many English speaking people. Click on the audio to hear English vocabulary words related to Easter, such as Easter egg, candy and jellybean. Five different activities give a lot of practice.