Humour has been a common strategy in advertising for many years, but is it true that humour is really effective for these companies to make their brand more memorable, or are these witty adverts all too much effort for the outcome they produce? Many humorous advertisements tend to be the most memorable, as it gets people talking about them, and sharing them with friends, etc. But does this really increase sales? Or do people just watch and share these advertisements because they're entertaining to look/watch and laugh?
Personally, I do agree that humour in advertising can be effective to a certain degree. Although, some factors need to be kept in mind when producing humorous ads such as; appropriate humour for the product, funny/witty–not insulting or obnoxious, targeting the humour of the audience who typically would be interested in purchasing the product, and most importantly, persuading the target audience to actually purchase these products. A really important key to remember is not to lose your intent of the advertisement, which is increasing sales. I think it's important that if an advertisement is humorous, it still needs to be specific and must make it's point, so that the audience doesn't get lost in the humour, and actually goes through with purchasing the product.
"According to a 1993 Journal of Marketing study that examined multinational effects of humour on advertising (a study that still stands true), the major conclusion was that humour is more likely to enhance recall, evaluation, and purchase intention when the humorous message coincides with ad objectives, is well-integrated with those objectives, and is viewed as appropriate for the product category. Under such circumstances, humorous advertising is more likely to secure audience attention, increase memorability, overcome sales resistance, and enhance message persuasiveness."
Another factor to keep in mind is; humour is in the eye of the beholder, and it is very easy to insult a certain audience, and certain humour can be easily misinterpreted. So, I think that the humour should be kept lightly, not too obnoxious where it can easily be taken the wrong way, and potentially leave a bad impression for your company. I also think that the humour strategy may be too risky for smaller, less mainstream companies because if the humour is mistaken or misses the mark, then this small company is putting a huge damper on their sales when they're really in no position to. Where as a huge franchise like McDonalds, has more room for advertisement fails because people will most likely still purchase their products even if they're humour was misinterpreted since they have such a huge audience range.
Above is a risky commercial for the men's Axe Detailer Shower Tool. This is a really good example of an advertisement that appeals to majority of it's target audience (men ages 18-30s), but this commerical could easily be offending to a certain audience such as older folks or people with a more serious sense of humour.
So, is humour really an asset for improving sales and getting your company name our there? Not really. There are numerous advertisements that have been very successful without the need to be funny. But I do agree that humour can be an easy way of getting people's attention. On the other hand, humour can be a really difficult strategy to use since it's so wide, and every person has a different sense of humour. Some companies may have the mindset that they don't really care if certain individuals are insulted by their adverts since they're only objective is targeting a certain crowd of people, and I think this is a bit risky since if you want you're company to become large and well respected, why would you put your company's reputation in that kind of predicament. That's just my view though, I personally would want my brand to be well respected by all different crowds, as this results in higher sales, and not just limiting your product to a specific target audience.
I also feel that there are certain company groups that can use the humour strategy, and ones that should not. Certain subjects that may be a sensitive topic to many people should not use humour in my opinion. Including humour that may come across as racist, sexist, or even just plain cold should never be used. This is obviously just going to create problems and controversy for your company. Below are a few advertisements which I found should not be using humour. (in the way they did anyway)
For a mouth wash ad, this is kind of an inappropriate setting, and may be
taken the wrong way to some people. It's not even really funny anyway, in
my opinion, so why bother?
This ad could be taken as racist. It's almost implying that the white
version is better than the black. Many people may be sensitive to this
subject and find this advertisement rather insulting or inappropriate.
This ad is obviously somewhat sexist. It's implying that the male
needs to use post-it note's to remember the girl's name. This is also
an example where the humour isn't really suitable for the product
they're trying to sell. What does sex have anything to do with post-its?
I feel this could be taken the wrong way to certain individuals.
So in conclusion, do I think all these risks that come along with humour in advertising worth it? Yes and no. Like I said, as long as the humour is used properly, still maintains it's point, and doesn't distract the audience with its humour...then yes I think it's most definitely worth the risk. But, if the ad misses it's point and could potentially be insulting to majority of people, then no it's obviously inappropriate and not worth the effort.
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