Humour in Advertising is Not Funny
It’s crap. There have been no studies that link humour in ads to effectiveness. It is the unexpected, and not humour that is more strongly linked to effectiveness according to Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily. He goes on to say that this is only true when the unexpected moment is strongly linked to(or casued by) the actual brand. He shows the ad above as a great example of this.
Kellaris and Cline (2007) go further and show that humour can actually detract from teh effectiveness of an ad, making recall, and message take out difficult to understand.
I am amazed at how often funny asvertising is suggested – when it is so often the wrong thing to do. If you want to read a blog of a person who would no doubt agree with all this – check out the blog sadvertising. If you work in an advertising agency please push back on funny for funny’s sake.
Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.
Comments
jemster
Jan 9th, 2009I know what you mean, I had to make myself really unpopular with the creative partners by insisting that ‘funny’ wasn’t right for the Guinness. I was accused of lacking a sense of humour but always felt the ‘good thing’ in good things come to those who wait’ should be a punchline.
Mind you…would have helped if you’d actualy found a funny ad to illustrate your point !
Fritz Bachen
Jan 14th, 2009Totally agree funny is not Guinness – cleverness, intrigue, and wit feel more on the money. For what it’s worth and for anyone out there listening I love Guinness.
Matt Moore
Jan 22nd, 2009And yet "funny" is the chosen for over 90% of viral ads: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121394423/HTMLSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Now assuming this study is right and the sample & interpretation is not hopelessly biased, does this mean that most viral ads are barking up the wrong tree (& therefore doomed before they even start)? Or are virals a "special case"?
If they aren't, why is humour used so frequently in this technique and what can be done to persuade people that it's a bad idea?
My apologies, lots of questions, not many answers.
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May 10th, 2011I agree. There are too many places, methods and ways where the humour could be used, but in my opinion the advertising must offer something a little bit more serious and informative.
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Oct 10th, 2011This won't succeed as a matter of fact, that's exactly what I consider.
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Dec 13th, 2011Serious or humorous doesn't matter: a crappy ad is a crappy ad
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