Kellogg's taste-based technology is fool's gold

I had to check it wasn’t April Fool’s Day when I read about Kellogg’s new ‘taste-based technology,’ which uses sensory stimulation to enable viewers to ‘taste’ products simply by watching a YouTube video.

I’ve shown The Drum's article to three people in the office and all gave the same reaction: “It looks like an April fool, but it’s not April. It can’t be.” And for that reason alone, I think this is one of the best ‘fools’ I’ve ever seen.

Instead of scrambling for coverage on April 1st alongside dozens of other food and drink PR teams, Kellogg’s and glue Isobar have used the “It’s All Lies” campaign to plant a genius April Fool in October. And you can be sure there’s more to follow.

It’s not just the timing that’s clever. Unlike many cheap stunts I’ve seen, this story is more than believable with seemingly credible references to innovation and technological development from all parties – even YouTube!

It might sound like something out of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory but technology continues to amaze me - who would have guessed three years ago that we would ever be able to watch live football in 3D? I blogged recently about Scent Marketing, which exploits sensory perception to encourage brand advocacy, and this just seems like the next step to me.

In fact this fool is so clever it wasn’t until I read the last line (“The taste-based technology advert forms part of ‘It’s all lies - they’re not even square!’ campaign”) that I completely ruled out the possibility that this story was real. Did it fool you as well?