Beware believing anything on the Internet on April 1! There were pranks aplenty on the web today, including these favorites with plastics angles:
• Treehugger.com did a post today titled TALL PLASTIC: The future of building in America.
"Today the American Chemistry Council, the American High-Performance Buildings Coalition, and the Vinyl Building Council announced TALL PLASTIC, a new initiative that will let American builders construct towers, apartments, highways and all the infrastructure in the USA out of good local recyclable American plastic."
The post, in the site's "Green Architecture" section, let readers in on the joke pretty quickly, saying that architecture firm Parker Kenner (get it?) was working on the project — and it that wasn't enough, they included photos of plastic toy building sets.
• 5 Gyres, an organization dedicated to the plastic marine litter issue, took to Facebook again this year to have some April 1 fun:
"MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! 5 Gyres will be ending operations as an entity at the end of the week. We have learned through our research that there is no cause for alarm for the billions of pounds of plastic in the ocean. In fact, it's a viable food source. Thanks for your years of support!"
Facebook fans had some fun with that.
• Tic Tac had some Facebook fun too, with the announcement that the company had developed a new "shakeless" pack, custom-engineered so the consumers can quietly munch on a mint — and presumably avoid sharing with others.
• Our friends and colleagues at PRW had some fun with a story headlined "Beer saves duchy from carrier bag tax."
"The Duchy of Grand Fenwick could evade any European Union (EU) legislation forcing retailers to charge for carrier bags as a result of the small Alpine territory's founding documents, which prohibit any legislation that 'might encumber the free transportation of ale.'"
If the "Duchy of Grand Fenwick" sounds vaguely familiar, it's not because it's "the smallest constituent part of the European Union," as PRW wrote. It's because Fenwick was the title country in the Leonard Wibberley classic satire, "The Mouse that Roared," with the movie version made famous by Peter Sellers.
Well played, PRW.
• One final one — I got a pitch from a PR person today that started with an alarming first paragraph:
"I am out of the public relations game and shall never again pitch you a story in my life," it promised.
"APRIL FOOLS! I have a great story for you."
Thanks to compounder Otech Corp., which was pitching a material called FIREXIT for cable jacketing and insulation with improved low-smoke abilities.
Thanks to everyone who contributed a creative prank or joke today.
