April Fools’ Day
In collaboration with the President’s Office, University Communications released a video on April 1st, 2023 in which President Ryan delivered “An Important Announcement” that UVA would be rebranding to UV because, among other things, “the A stands for nothing.”
Not stopping there, the video showed staged whiteboard branding sessions and fake merchandise, followed by reactions of shock and disbelief from UVA students, faculty, alumni and even Cavman himself.
That’s when the internet melted. In a good way.
The video quickly became the most viewed in UVA history, generating over 380,000 views on YouTube and a million impressions on our social media channels. It inspired a litany of reactions, comments and shares and became the #11 trending video on YouTube after only 24 hours. It made the news cycle and was cited by the Washington Post during its summary of April Fools’ Day excellence.
More importantly, it gave the UVA community a new reason to love UVA and proved there’s room in higher education for humor. Now that’s something worth celebrating. So let’s all join hands and give a yell for the dear old UV!...
