There were dozens of April Fool’s Day jokes by brands, as usual, some lamer than others. Online language learning service, Duolingo’s, fake toilet paper stood out – so much so that it has become a real product.
The idea came from Wieden + Kennedy. The product is Duolingo roll, toilet paper with language lessons written on it so that people can do something constructive while they’re doing something – well, you know.
Wieden + Kennedy certainly did everything possible to make the brand’s April Fool’s screen-free platform prank popular. (It is not impossible to imagine that a future product was the end game all along.) The rolls were given beautiful colourful packaging. They come in five different languages, for English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese speakers. They’re 3-ply soft. And they were said to be launched in a limited edition.
There was even an agency quote, “Duolingo understands that one of the most common barriers to learning a language is how much time it takes,” says W+K Amsterdam planning director, Thom Dinsdale. “However, studies have found that people spend an average of fourteen minutes a day sitting on the toilet. Developing a new product to help learners utilise this downtime was a natural extension of its multi-platform offering.”
The phrases on the paper do seem to suggest a prank though:
The idea was exquisitely detailed. According to the brand, a collaboration with WeWork was included. The rolls were allegedly installed in eighteen WeWork offices’ bathrooms across China and according to the brand, rolls were also sent out to influencers in England, Mexico, Brazil, the US, Japan and China.
Duolingo played the April Fool’s game admirably:
