Are Ferrero and Nissin Teasing Real Products or April Fools’ Gags?

Five brands under Ferrero Group and Nissin posted surprising new product teasers today, and none of them are saying whether any of it is real.

The announcements began rolling out across social platforms with posts confirmed live for Butterfinger, CRUNCH Bar, Cup Noodles, Mother's Cookies, and Keebler.

With April Fools' Day just two days away, the timing may have just spoken for itself.

The Five Suspicious Posts

"Top Ramen Butterfinger" was just teased on Instagram, with Butterfinger and Top Ramen calling it "the collab of the century."

The brands describe a ramen format with a peanut buttery glaze and the brand's signature crispety crunchety bits, positioned as a sweet and savory late-night craving fix.

Cup Noodles, on the other hand, is teasing the Heatless Curls Kit, an overnight hair styling product using flexible rods described as noodles and a setting spray called "Broth Boost."

CRUNCH Bar is releasing the Buncha CRUNCH Dispenser, a device that delivers the product's pieces directly into a popcorn bucket for a sweet and salty snack combo.

Meanwhile, Mother's Cookies is presenting Ultimate Dad Mode Cookies.

It's the same vanilla shortbread in new shapes celebrating dad archetypes, including the sports fan, the weekend builder, and the late-night gamer.

Last but not least, Keebler is teasing a line of cookie-flavored toothpastes called Keebler Hollow Tree Toothpaste.

It even includes variants like Fudge Fresh, Elf Enamel, Cookiepaste, Shortbread Shine, and Brownie Brush.

The Ambiguity Is the Strategy

None of these brands has confirmed whether the products are real, and this uncertainty is doing the creative work.

The Butterfinger x Top Ramen collab is the most plausible of the five.

Peanut butter and noodles are a combination people already eat, and both brands live in the same late-night snack drawer.

The Cup Noodles hair kit and the Keebler toothpaste line are harder to picture on shelves, which is what makes them so shareable and intriguing.

The more surprising the concept, the more audiences are likely to pass it around social media and speculate on its legitimacy.

Mother's Cookies sits somewhere in between because dad-shaped shortbread ahead of Father's Day is a sensible seasonal SKU.

And if it turns out to be real, the timing of the announcement will have generated attention before a single bag was sold.

Whether these turn out to be real or not, the mechanics behind them are worth noting for seasonal marketing planning.

• Keep the real-or-fake tension alive as long as possible: Holding any reveal extends the earned media window.
• Ground the surprising concept in something real: The strongest teasers connect to a genuine brand truth that audiences already associate with the product.
• Use the event to test product concepts: Audience reaction to a tease is free market research on whether something could actually work.

Product announcements that leave audiences uncertain generate more sustained social conversation and greater earned media value.

Our Take: Which of These Could Actually Be Real?

We think the Butterfinger x Top Ramen collab has the best chance of being genuine, and the CRUNCH popcorn dispenser isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.

The hair kit and the toothpaste are the ones we're the least sure about, but then again, stranger things have turned out to be real.

Mother's Cookies is the one we would watch most closely.

If the dad-shaped shortbread turns out to be a real Father's Day product, the timing of this announcement will have achieved two things at once.

And as one of the posts states, "Check back on 4/1 for more info 👀."

Last year’s April Fools’ Day marketing stunts also showed how similar fake product drops kept conversations going well beyond the initial post.

Food and beverage brands building seasonal campaign strategies need agencies that understand how to balance humor with brand credibility.

Explore the top food and beverage marketing agencies in our directory.