We were left in amazement yesterday as it came to light just how far an email that was sent out as an April fools’ day joke had travelled.

We issued an e-newsletter to clients with updated information about the company. Due to the fact that this e-bulletin was hitting in-boxes on the morning of April 1st, we took the opportunity to have some fun and incorporated a spoof story.

The April fool gave details of a spoof new client who distributes a revolutionary new water named H2O NO! It was claimed that the bottle contained no actual water, only ingeniously packaged hydrogen atoms. As the drinker unseals the cap, oxygen is allowed to enter the bottle in a scientifically controlled manner. The resulting chemical reaction leaves an exact bottle full of water, ready to drink.

What we didn’t know was the hyperlink to the spoof webpage was forwarded on to thousands of people around the world with hits from America, India, Thailand and China as well as throughout Europe.

Mark (our resident Business Development bod) was shocked at the results when he saw the speed at which the link was being forwarded on.

“We analyse the hits on our website on a regular basis after sending out an e-bulletin so we can monitor its effectiveness and see how many people are reading it. I was amazed when I saw that the page of our website that contained the spoof story was getting literally thousands of hits.”

After investigating, it came to light that people who had received the link as part of the e-bulletin had then forwarded the link to the spoof page on to friends around the world.

Embarrassingly though, not everyone seemed to get the joke. Mark was shocked to receive an email from a boutique hotel in Bangkok asking whether there were going to be any Thai stockists of the water.

“At first I thought that they were playing an April fools joke on me when they asked where they could get hold of the water. However, it transpired that they were being serious so I had to explain that it had been a joke and that, in fact, the product doesn’t exist.”

You can check out the spoof at http://www.ideafuel.co.uk/h2ono/