The joke with advertising
The use of humor is not suitable for every product - and least of all in print ads
The use of humor is not suitable for every product - and least of all in print adsBy Wolfgang Koschnick Humor in advertising is guaranteed to have an effect on the viewer or listener. However, if there is no reference to the advertised product, the effect of the joke will fizzle out. That's why it's important to think carefully about the product for which funny advertising is effective.
At first glance, the matter seems as clear as day: funny advertising is simply fun. People are happy. Maybe they even have to laugh. It feels good and sticks in the memory. Everyone likes to remember funny commercials. So it goes like clockwork - or so you think.
If only it were always that simple. At second glance, however, the effect of humorous advertising seems to fizzle out somewhere: People are probably having a great time and laughing heartily, but in the end all that remains is the memory of the successful joke. No one remembers the product that the funny commercial was supposed to promote.
And what's far worse: The punchline wears thin after a few repetitions. No joke is so good that you could listen to its punchline five, ten, or even twenty times. When you've seen again and again how the two hunters with the duck whistle collide in the reeds because they've lured each other with their whistling, you can't laugh at it anymore. Not even smiling anymore. And what was the commercial for again? That's exactly where the hare lies in the pepper.
Jokes thrive on the surprise effect of a good punch line. But advertising thrives on the lasting effect of many repetitions - on massive advertising pressure. And that ruins the best punchline.
Humor increases credibility of advertisers
Reason enough for advertising research to take an in-depth look at the possible effects of humorous or humorous design elements in advertising, and to do so with due methodological care. The result of the worldwide efforts of market and communication researchers is a little more than what usually comes out of such projects: Nothing is known for sure.
Because there are a few certainties that deserve to be recorded. Hard to deny the fact that with the help of funny advertising you can get high attention.
People look first. In view of the veritable flood of advertising that pours down on the general public every day, this is of course a real blessing that cannot be overestimated.
But a high level of attention is not yet an advertising effect. It only offers the very best prerequisites for the much-noticed advertising to also influence the buying behavior of those advertised to. In any case, worldwide advertising research has proven with a fair degree of certainty that humorous advertising not only attracts attention, but also increases sympathy for the advertiser. What's more, humor also promotes understanding of the message and - not always, but increasingly often - even the credibility of the advertiser. What more could an advertising company possibly want?
A lot! Because after that it gets difficult, because there is a danger that the humorous elements in a commercial will distract attention from the product itself. Advertising researchers even speak of a vampire effect. Like a true vampire, the joke takes over the entire commercial and sucks the reference to the advertised product out of it. All attention is focused on the joke, but no viewer or listener pays attention to the product anymore.
The most obvious distraction from the advertiser's intended goals is sex in advertising (see WW 38/00). Here, the connection between the object of the advertising (the product or service) and the advertising design is either artificially created, or it does not exist at all. The same principle applies to humor. It is just not quite so easy to recognize.
Too much humor damages the advertising effect
In the worst case, the distraction can even jeopardize the understanding of the message. For example, American studies by Leon Festinger and Nicholas Maccoby in the 1960s initially showed that a certain amount of distraction during a communicative influence can even increase the effect of the influence.
In experiments, a verbal influence was combined with a film that did not match this influencing communication. Then the communication effect was compared with an influencing of a verbal kind with a matching film.
In another study, however, G. A. Haaland and M. Venkatesan showed: In the case of very strong distraction, consumers are influenced much more weakly than without distraction. The relatively weak distraction of the study by Festinger and Maccoby obviously led to the fact that the test subjects understood the message, but were not able to critically deal with it. This mechanism of action can be applied directly to an advertising medium such as television, which rarely receives the undivided attention of the audience.
Many studies indicate that not too much distraction reduces reactance. In advertising research, reactance is the term used to describe the conscious defensive reaction against "advertising that is laid on too thick": the recipient defends himself against the attempt to influence him or subsequently repels an influence that has already taken place and tries to restore his threatened freedom by either rejecting the alternative suggested to him or by upgrading the attractiveness of all the alternatives not suggested to him.
The advertising potential lies in the associations
People are apparently motivated not to be influenced. As a result of reactance, a boomerang effect can occur: The person concerned rejects the recommendation made in an advertising spot and does exactly the opposite. So for advertising to be effective in influencing, feelings of reactance must be avoided in the target persons.
However, one could counter this comparison with the fact that every creative advertisement runs the risk of distraction: the more creative the idea, the greater the distance to the advertised product. So it's always a matter of putting the creative elements at the service of the message.
This applies to humor as well as to all other attention-getting elements of a message. One should also always pay close attention to whom a message is directed. And you should not overtax the recipients in the process. Witty jokes on a high intellectual level are usually too high for the clientele of advertising messages. Not because they're all stupid, but because most of them don't pay their highly concentrated attention to advertising at all.
Funny advertising has often aimed far off the mark
A larger number of controlled studies to test the persuasive effect of humorous advertising messages have shown that humorous and serious versions of messages did not differ in the influencing effect. This means in any case: The purchasing effect of advertising does not depend on the advertising wit. The potential of humorous advertising obviously lies in the creation of favorable associations and connotations.
When advertising is about influencing the behavior of target groups, humor is certainly not a decisive factor. This is the common thread that emerges from all scientific studies. At best, it is an ornamental accessory. Its effect is limited to the atmospheric. And even with the atmospheric effects it depends on the individual case. The thing can also go wrong more often.
There is even a whole series of studies that assume that witty advertising generally backfires. For example, the American advertising researchers R. I. Haley, J. Richardson and B. M. Baldwin reviewed a large number of experimental studies on the relationship between humor and persuasion in advertising and concluded: "Humor generally correlates negatively with persuasion. Needless to say, humor itself is a complex topic and the range of humor available in this sample was limited. However, these data suggest that use of humor involves substantial risks." (There is a negative correlation between humor and influence. No doubt humor as such is a complex topic, and the range of humor available in our sample was limited. But the data suggest that there are significant risks associated with the use of humor). Yes, when someone talks so pompously, there must be something to it, right?
All in all, the following applies: The advertising effect of humor cannot be clearly determined. It really depends very much on the individual case. And in the individual case, it is very important to check which dangers exist for the close connection between the advertising joke and the product. And this is probably the most difficult act of all.
If the joke in the ad is a pure no-brainer and would work even without any advertising, there is a first alert level. Probably the joke is then aiming far off target without any advertising effect.
A joke is good when it is connected to the product
This - like humor in advertising in general - is not funny at all and is a beery affair. And it's one of the reasons why the Cannes reel is so wildly popular with a wide audience. The Cannes annual award-winning commercials are incredibly funny. You can even watch it as an entertainment film in the cinema, and you can't stop laughing.
The poor jurors prefer to award prizes for funny commercials. They would have to be bored to death if they only ever had to reward commercials that consistently put the product in the spotlight. That's all very understandable. But only a few of these commercials are effective. Most of them merely contribute to amusement. But they do so in a way that most advertisers would have to state with royal restraint: "I am not amused."
So it's not enough to create a commercial that thrives on an incredibly funny idea. It is more important that the punchline itself is directly related to the advertised product. The most perfect spot would be one whose joke is so intensely related to the advertised product that the same joke could not be made for another product at all, or almost not at all. But creative people manage to do that at best once in several years.
At first glance, the matter seems as clear as day: funny advertising is simply fun. People are happy. Maybe they even have to laugh. It feels good and sticks in the memory. Everyone likes to remember funny commercials. So it goes like clockwork - or so you think.
If only it were always that simple. At second glance, however, the effect of humorous advertising seems to fizzle out somewhere: People are probably having a great time and laughing heartily, but in the end all that remains is the memory of the successful joke. No one remembers the product that the funny commercial was supposed to promote.
And what's far worse: The punchline wears thin after a few repetitions. No joke is so good that you could listen to its punchline five, ten, or even twenty times. When you've seen again and again how the two hunters with the duck whistle collide in the reeds because they've lured each other with their whistling, you can't laugh at it anymore. Not even smiling anymore. And what was the commercial for again? That's exactly where the hare lies in the pepper.
Jokes thrive on the surprise effect of a good punch line. But advertising thrives on the lasting effect of many repetitions - on massive advertising pressure. And that ruins the best punchline.
Humor increases credibility of advertisers
Reason enough for advertising research to take an in-depth look at the possible effects of humorous or humorous design elements in advertising, and to do so with due methodological care. The result of the worldwide efforts of market and communication researchers is a little more than what usually comes out of such projects: Nothing is known for sure.
Because there are a few certainties that deserve to be recorded. Hard to deny the fact that with the help of funny advertising you can get high attention.
People look first. In view of the veritable flood of advertising that pours down on the general public every day, this is of course a real blessing that cannot be overestimated.
But a high level of attention is not yet an advertising effect. It only offers the very best prerequisites for the much-noticed advertising to also influence the buying behavior of those advertised to. In any case, worldwide advertising research has proven with a fair degree of certainty that humorous advertising not only attracts attention, but also increases sympathy for the advertiser. What's more, humor also promotes understanding of the message and - not always, but increasingly often - even the credibility of the advertiser. What more could an advertising company possibly want?
A lot! Because after that it gets difficult, because there is a danger that the humorous elements in a commercial will distract attention from the product itself. Advertising researchers even speak of a vampire effect. Like a true vampire, the joke takes over the entire commercial and sucks the reference to the advertised product out of it. All attention is focused on the joke, but no viewer or listener pays attention to the product anymore.
The most obvious distraction from the advertiser's intended goals is sex in advertising (see WW 38/00). Here, the connection between the object of the advertising (the product or service) and the advertising design is either artificially created, or it does not exist at all. The same principle applies to humor. It is just not quite so easy to recognize.
Too much humor damages the advertising effect
In the worst case, the distraction can even jeopardize the understanding of the message. For example, American studies by Leon Festinger and Nicholas Maccoby in the 1960s initially showed that a certain amount of distraction during a communicative influence can even increase the effect of the influence.
In experiments, a verbal influence was combined with a film that did not match this influencing communication. Then the communication effect was compared with an influencing of a verbal kind with a matching film.
In another study, however, G. A. Haaland and M. Venkatesan showed: In the case of very strong distraction, consumers are influenced much more weakly than without distraction. The relatively weak distraction of the study by Festinger and Maccoby obviously led to the fact that the test subjects understood the message, but were not able to critically deal with it. This mechanism of action can be applied directly to an advertising medium such as television, which rarely receives the undivided attention of the audience.
Many studies indicate that not too much distraction reduces reactance. In advertising research, reactance is the term used to describe the conscious defensive reaction against "advertising that is laid on too thick": the recipient defends himself against the attempt to influence him or subsequently repels an influence that has already taken place and tries to restore his threatened freedom by either rejecting the alternative suggested to him or by upgrading the attractiveness of all the alternatives not suggested to him.
The advertising potential lies in the associations
People are apparently motivated not to be influenced. As a result of reactance, a boomerang effect can occur: The person concerned rejects the recommendation made in an advertising spot and does exactly the opposite. So for advertising to be effective in influencing, feelings of reactance must be avoided in the target persons.
However, one could counter this comparison with the fact that every creative advertisement runs the risk of distraction: the more creative the idea, the greater the distance to the advertised product. So it's always a matter of putting the creative elements at the service of the message.
This applies to humor as well as to all other attention-getting elements of a message. One should also always pay close attention to whom a message is directed. And you should not overtax the recipients in the process. Witty jokes on a high intellectual level are usually too high for the clientele of advertising messages. Not because they're all stupid, but because most of them don't pay their highly concentrated attention to advertising at all.
Funny advertising has often aimed far off the mark
A larger number of controlled studies to test the persuasive effect of humorous advertising messages have shown that humorous and serious versions of messages did not differ in the influencing effect. This means in any case: The purchasing effect of advertising does not depend on the advertising wit. The potential of humorous advertising obviously lies in the creation of favorable associations and connotations.
When advertising is about influencing the behavior of target groups, humor is certainly not a decisive factor. This is the common thread that emerges from all scientific studies. At best, it is an ornamental accessory. Its effect is limited to the atmospheric. And even with the atmospheric effects it depends on the individual case. The thing can also go wrong more often.
There is even a whole series of studies that assume that witty advertising generally backfires. For example, the American advertising researchers R. I. Haley, J. Richardson and B. M. Baldwin reviewed a large number of experimental studies on the relationship between humor and persuasion in advertising and concluded: "Humor generally correlates negatively with persuasion. Needless to say, humor itself is a complex topic and the range of humor available in this sample was limited. However, these data suggest that use of humor involves substantial risks." (There is a negative correlation between humor and influence. No doubt humor as such is a complex topic, and the range of humor available in our sample was limited. But the data suggest that there are significant risks associated with the use of humor). Yes, when someone talks so pompously, there must be something to it, right?
All in all, the following applies: The advertising effect of humor cannot be clearly determined. It really depends very much on the individual case. And in the individual case, it is very important to check which dangers exist for the close connection between the advertising joke and the product. And this is probably the most difficult act of all.
If the joke in the ad is a pure no-brainer and would work even without any advertising, there is a first alert level. Probably the joke is then aiming far off target without any advertising effect.
A joke is good when it is connected to the product
This - like humor in advertising in general - is not funny at all and is a beery affair. And it's one of the reasons why the Cannes reel is so wildly popular with a wide audience. The Cannes annual award-winning commercials are incredibly funny. You can even watch it as an entertainment film in the cinema, and you can't stop laughing.
The poor jurors prefer to award prizes for funny commercials. They would have to be bored to death if they only ever had to reward commercials that consistently put the product in the spotlight. That's all very understandable. But only a few of these commercials are effective. Most of them merely contribute to amusement. But they do so in a way that most advertisers would have to state with royal restraint: "I am not amused."
So it's not enough to create a commercial that thrives on an incredibly funny idea. It is more important that the punchline itself is directly related to the advertised product. The most perfect spot would be one whose joke is so intensely related to the advertised product that the same joke could not be made for another product at all, or almost not at all. But creative people manage to do that at best once in several years.
