Every April Fools' Day, businesses pull some wacky social media stunts to trick consumers and have a bit of a giggle - coriander cookies, liquorice All Sort lollies, you know the drill.
But the owners of one Kiwi brewery have pushed the boundaries with an April Fools' Stunt that almost managed to trick the masses: pretending they had sold their business to controversial religious group Destiny Church.
The "announcement" was made in a statement posted to the Good George Brewing Facebook page on Thursday morning.
"Big news to announce today," the post reads.
"Hamilton craft brewer and distiller Good George has this morning announced the sale of its business."
The statement promised to change the name of the brewery to 'Good Lord Brewing' in the wake of the sale to Destiny Church, "representing a major shift in focus for the organisation, which is better known for its anti-vax stance and blaming the media and gay people for earthquakes".
Pretending to quote Good George founder Brian Watson, the statement went on: "Two of our pubs in Hamilton and Cambridge are also housed in old churches, which is probably why we got on their radar. The chance to have Good George's future supercharged by a merger with the big guy was too good to pass up."
There was even talk of church services resuming in the brewery.
"It makes sense to look for all possible synergies and maximise efficiencies wherever we can. We are not usually that busy at 10am on a Sunday so why not?"
The first beer under the new brand promised to be the 'Zealot IPA', "which renders all drinkers impervious to scientifically proven facts".
The post has racked up over 3000 reactions at the time of publishing and 1000 comments from amused patrons, many of whom fell for the prank on first read.
"You got me, I was just saying never going to buy Good George again!" one person commented.
"I'm a bit slow first thing in the morning, fortunately I figured out what day today is just as I was getting to the end of the 'press release'. The contents of my beer fridge was looking a bit endangered for a second there," another joked.
"That had me going for longer than I care to admit," another offered.
Destiny Church, led by Brian Tamaki and his wife Hannah, has made headlines over the years for various homophobic stances, alleged financial exploitation of followers and dangerous messaging around the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far the Tamakis have not commented on the Good George Brewing prank.
