You don't remember Google's April 1st announcement of Gmail, then. With gigabytes of storage, it was the perfect joke for the day and naturally carried by news outlets everywhere. And the joke continued on the next day, people realized that it wasn't actually a joke and, naturally, another media frenzy happened. Perfect example of guerrilla marketing IMO.

I completely remember that, which is why companies like Amazon should especially know better.

... wait, what? You specifically remember Gmail's launch (a good thing), and Gmail's launch had multiple phases of publicity (also a good thing).

What should Amazon know better about? Gmail launching on April Fools was a net positive thing.

It's excellent timing, no one knows if it's a "joke". Amazon gets coverage either way.

I guess, if your philosophy is "bad coverage is still coverage". But hasn't this happened with an Amazon product announcement before, and backfired? Amazon Echo comes to mind.

Not even sure that was around April fools, but my point is, bad coverage can, and has often, backfired.

April Fools jokes don't happen until tomorrow, no? I can't remember any jokes happening on March 31.

That's sort of my point. Most people, with April Fools just around the corner (and already here, for some), it will still be used in mockery comments about the product, even though they know it's a real product.

Its a great marketing opportunity. Get out in front of the other advertisements... i mean pranks.

It's April 1 in much of the eastern hemisphere.

They're innovators.