For the ultimate April Fools’ Day prank, we created a fictional bright blue colored chicken wing sauce for Hurricane Grill & Wings, a 62-location full-service restaurant franchise. The post quickly gained viral attention (3 million+ engaged with the campaign) and even earned a writeup in Adweek’s “Roundup of All the Best Brand Hoaxes” amongst some of the biggest global brands in the world (you can read it here).

The next day we announced the real intention behind the hoax: To raise exposure (and money) for Autism Awareness Month utilizing the cause’s well-known blue campaign color. We then shared that we’d make a donation to Els for Autism for every wing sold at all 62 locations all April long. The result was a huge success. By leveraging the viral nature of our funky blue wings, we ended up raising over $15,000 for the Els For Autism foundation.