April Fool Homepage Takeover With Action Figures

What's the play

Take over your homepage for 24 hours with a fake physical product launch. PostHog shot a parody toy commercial for a fictional line of tech-archetype action figures, swapped their homepage for a dedicated landing page on April 1, and amplified it across socials.

What was the alternative?

Post a one-off joke tweet and call it a day.

Results / what moved

PostHog executed the full takeover on April 1. The homepage ran the action figure campaign for 24 hours, with a path kept open to the normal homepage. The video ad and social push drove significant organic attention. Real hand-painted figures existed and were used as a prize draw, capturing emails from entrants.

Cost breakdown

Video production + design time (Figma box art, landing page build). Hand-painted figures for the shoot.

Time to pull off

~3 weeks

Would you run it again?

One time gig.

Steps

1. 1

   Pick your fictional product and cast of characters

   Choose a product category that parodies your industry. PostHog went with action figures and built four archetypes: the CEO, Crypto Bro, AI CEO, and Private Equity Exec. The more recognizable the stereotype, the funnier the packaging.

2. 2

   Shoot a parody video ad

   Produce a short video in the style of an over-the-top toy commercial. Keep the tone OTT and self-aware. PostHog used their DeskHog ad as a tonal reference. Write a script first and get sign-off before you book a shoot day.

3. 3

   Design the box art

   Create packaging mockups for each character in Figma. Give each one a catchphrase on the box. Aim for a unified product line logo while varying colors per character. This doubles as social content and landing page assets.

4. 4

   Build a dedicated landing page

   Build a standalone page for the fictional product. If you have real physical items, add an email capture for a prize draw. Keep a link or path back to your normal homepage so you do not strand visitors who want the real product.

5. 5

   Set your homepage to redirect on April 1

   Swap your default homepage to the takeover page for 24 hours. Make sure the redirect is easy to revert and that the normal homepage is still reachable via a direct URL.

6. 6

   Coordinate the amplification push

   Launch on Product Hunt the same day. Run paid promotion of the video on social. Have your founder post in-character about why the company is pivoting to toys. Optionally rebrand your social accounts to look like a toy company for the day. Line all of this up before April 1 so everything fires at once.

Notes

Keep a path to the normal homepage so visitors who want the real thing can find it. The founder posting in-character about pivoting to toys is a big part of what makes this land.

Tools & resources used

Figma