This probably isn’t the year for April Fools’ jokes, given what people are going through, and also given that at this point reality is crazier than any joke a company can come up with.
While I’ve seen stories all over the web warning companies that this isn’t the year for them to try to make jokes, I think Virgin Australia deserves a lot of credit for what they’ve done.
As the airline describes it, “Virgin Australia has today flipped April Fools’ Day on its head, turning the airline’s annual prank into a reality.”
Following a shortage of toilet paper throughout Australia (and the world, for that matter), Virgin Australia is taking thousands of toilet paper rolls from their storage facilities and 125 grounded aircraft, and is donating them to vulnerable members of the community. On top of that, Kleenex will match Virgin Australia’s donation.
As Sarah Adam, Virgin Australia’s General Manager of Product and Customer, describes this move:
“We are known for pranking travellers each year with April Fool’s Day announcements, but we’ve decided that this year, we’ve all been punked enough by 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to temporarily reduce our flying schedule and ground 125 aircraft, which means there is a lot of toilet paper not being used, and we want to ease some of the stress that so many Australians are currently facing.
Each year our passengers use enough toilet paper to stretch from Sydney to Los Angeles, so we’re thrilled that in true Virgin spirit, we’re going to help the elderly, the vulnerable, medical staff, and our charity partners, by giving them the supply of toilet paper that’s currently locked-up in our grounded aircraft and storage facilities throughout Australia.”
Here’s Virgin Australia’s video about the initiative:
Well done, Virgin Australia!
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