Sunday, 18 September 2011

Why humour in advertising works

Humor works by:
  • Aiding exposure: Preventing consumers from avoiding the commercial by switching channels or avoiding the commercial by fast-forwarding while watching a prerecorded program.
  • Holding attention: Getting people to listen to or watch the ad (rather than shift their attention to something else);
  • Helping memory: Making people remember the ad by the joke.
  • Gratification: Adds to the enjoyment people derive from the use of media. It leaves a pleasant feeling by having amused the consumer, and this pleasant feeling rubs off on the brand.
  • Multiplier effect: Repeated self-rehearsal. People like to tell jokes and talk about funny commercials; doing so further helps memorizing.
     Humor works best when:
  • Consumers already have a positive attitude toward the brand. (With initially negative consumer attitudes, humor might work only if it is self-deprecating.)
  • The product is light, low in involvement.
  • The product is not upscale, and gravitas is not the brand’s aspired positioning.
  • The product pokes fun at itself (rather than at other brands or other people);
  • The joke and brand message are integrated. For example, in an airline ad, a man comes home with flowers for his wife and begins to undress (to bare briefs) even as he walks toward the interior of the house, only to discover his in-laws waiting. The airline was promoting its cheap fares! (Had this ad had been for a company selling flowers, the humor would have stood unconnected with the message.)
humor can backfire when:
  • The ad makes fun of a specific group; and
  • It is in bad taste, relative to the sophistication or culture of the audience.

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