Marywood University April Fools Page
Marywood University received local and national media attention for the implementation of an April Fool’s Day homepage. Dubbed “Project 41″, the April Fools’ prank was the cause unprecedented, record-hitting website visits and nationwide social media exposure for the University.
View April Fools website: Squirrels take over the Marywood home page
Scranton Times
Sarah Hall did a feature story on the success of the Marywood Home Squirrel page. Sister Kathleen Burns, Mark Pitely and Amy Fedele were interviewed about the work they did on the covert April Fool’s Day operation that attracted national attention. Sister Kathleen, Mark and Amy have received congratulations from web colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical College, UC Berkley and University of Florida to name a few.
WBRE-TV
The news director at WBRE-TV commented that the Marywood site was the hit of news room on April 1, with everybody logging on to see the squirrels. They ended their 6 o’clock newscast with a kicker about the Marywood homepage.
Marywood Magazine
The campus squirrels, led by “General Nutters McWalnut” took over the home page, presented a list of demands, and threatened to chew the wires of the University’s server, should these demands not be met. Of course, it was all in good fun—and the fun was noticed by the media, other universities, blogs, and alumni from around the country, becoming a frequently shared and tweeted phenomenon on social networking sites.
“Squirrel Uprising” Garners National Attention
Everyone expects a joke or two on April Fool’s Day, but unsuspecting members of the Marywood University community, as well as anyone who happened to visit Marywood’s website that day, experienced nuttiness of an entirely different sort.
The campus squirrels, led by “General Nutters McWalnut” took over the home page, presented a list of demands, and threatened to chew the wires of the University’s server, should these demands not be met. Of course, it was all in good fun—and the fun was noticed by the media, other universities, blogs, and alumni from around the country, becoming a frequently shared and tweeted phenomenon on social networking sites.
The prank was the brainchild of Marywood’s web development team, including Sister Kathleen Burns, IHM, Director of Web Development; Amy Fedele, Web Design Specialist; Mark Pitely, Web Developer; and graduate assistant Daniel Sputa.
To relive the squirrel uprising, go to www.marywood.edu/home/41.html.
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