Turkish Chocolate Ad for April Fool's Day Accused of Encouraging Military Coup

In the wake of a failed military coup last year, Turkey remains in an official state of emergency. But that didn't stop chocolate giant Ulker Biskuvi from releasing an April Fool's commercial that has been interpreted by the Turkish government as attempting to incite more political unrest.

The ad shows two cartoon characters playing a series of strange April Fool's pranks on each other, and ends with a thundering voice-over proclaiming in Turkish that "now is the day of reckoning."

The video then was posted to a YouTube channel that is clearly pro-President Erdoğan , who has been ruling Turkey with an iron fist since almost being ousted by the military last year.

Sure, this may not seem so subversive to someone unfamiliar with Turkish politics. But in a country still on edge, the government saw the ad as a veiled threat and took to the media to call out the food manufacturer.

Turkish politician Metin Kulunk (famous for fucking up other Turkish politicians) told CNN affiliate CNN-Turk that Ulker's April Fool's campaign was no laughing matter, insisting that it was "an attempt to manipulate the psychology of 80 million people" and that Turkey "has not and will not forget the night of the coup."

According to Bloomberg, Ulker Biskuvi called the response to the ad a "defamation campaign" in a statement and the company's owner, Murat Ulker, tweeted that "we are on the side of the nation" and labelled the backlash "a conspiracy."

Ulker Biskuvi is owned by Turkish conglomerate Yildiz Holding, which also owns Belgian chocolate company Godiva as well as United Biscuits, maker of McVitie's and Jaffa Cakes. All of this political hullaballoo has led share prices of Yildiz to make a an abrupt 5 percent nosedive.

Sometimes, April Fool's Day isn't all fun and games.