Would you believe there’s an apple called the Purple Prince?
A firm flavoursome apple with “purple skin” and “crisp white flesh” developed by Tibetan growers of the Black Diamond variety.
Well, it was nothing more than a tasty April Fool’s Day gag, that went viral on Dandenong Market’s social media platforms.
Yet, the explanation dreamt up by the market’s marketing manager – and Prince fan – sounded nearly convincing.
“The temperature differences between day and night are significant, and the fruits get a lot of sunlight and ultraviolet light which cause their skin to change colour,” it stated.
“Purple Prince has been named as a tribute to Prince and his legendary song ‘Sometimes it snows in April’.”
Apparently, some customers were taken in by the hoax, according to Dandenong Market general manager Jennifer Hibbs.
“We’ve heard from our traders that customers did come to the Market looking for Purple Prince apples,” she said.
“We were surprised the social media story got so much traction and we had fun reading all the comments.”
The Instagram and Facebook posts on the “brand new apple variety” were seen by the market’s biggest-ever “organic reach” audience of more than 70,000.
