Ohm 1
Sarah Ohm
Professor Rhonda Sandberg
English COMM 1007
31 March 2014
Humour Proves To Be A Leading Contender In Advertising Campaign Success
The most effective advertising or marketing campaigns are the ones that are
memorable to consumers, some organizations run heart-warming campaigns
around the holiday season, while other organizations run a series of television
commercials with a memorable main character to connect with their targeted
consumers. There are a number of ways of creating a lasting impression on
consumers and humour should be considered a major contender among the other
strategic tactics implemented by marketers. Organizations can leverage the lasting
effects that humour has on consumers through direct puns or creating real life
scenarios with humour to connect with the consumers on a human level. There are
multiple ways to include humour in a marketing campaign effectively. Humourous
advertising can be equally, if not more effective than other, non-humourous forms of
advertising campaigns if implemented correctly to consumers.
Forbes.com recently put together a list of “The Most Unforgettable Ads of
2013”, which included 2 advertisement campaigns that used humour to portray
their message to consumers. The most popular was a television commercial run by
K-mart promoting the service Kmart provided to consumers to have their purchases
shipped to their home free of charge. The advertisement was titled “Ship My Pants”
and included family members acting shocked to find out that they could “ship their
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pants” or “ship their bed” to their home for free. The reason this advertisement was
so effective is because it is something that consumers would not expect to come
from a company such as K-mart. Due to the play on words and the humour behind
every customer in the commercial using the play on words in a different context, the
advertisement is extremely memorable for consumers and actually went viral with
the hashtag #ShipMyPants. Social media played a large role in this particular
advertisement going viral due to the fact that consumers enjoy sharing content such
as this with friends and family, and due to that reason the advertisement could
reach consumers who would not have necessarily seen the advertisement on their
television screens. “In many ways it’s a throwback to yesteryear, reminding us all
that creating an entertaining ad that hammers home a key value proposition for the
brand (in this case free shipping) is as valuable today as it was in years gone by. In
fact even more so, because with social media it has a longer shelf life and reaches an
unexpected and unintended audiences in ways that might actually broaden the
brand’s appeal” (Smith par. 26).
Another great example of how humour has effectively been used in
advertising campaigns is with insurance companies. In 2010, the insurance industry
spent $5 billion in marketing alone, and the 4 big companies (Allstate, Geico,
Progressive and State Farm) all use humour in their advertising campaigns (Adding
Humour 38). Allstate Insurance ran an advertising campaign called “Mayhem”
where one man was portrayed in multiple television commercials as “mayhem” and
caused accidents in several different, yet very relevant to the average consumer,
real-life scenarios. They have concluded that the reason the advertising campaign
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was so effective is because Allstate has a large online presence and with the use of
social media, the “Mayhem” commercials went viral among consumers, typically of
younger age. “Humour tends to attract a more youthful audience. It’s something they
can relate to and respect; it seems real rather than forced or fabricated” (Adding
Humour 38).
Humour can also be a very effective approach when a company is looking to
rebrand a product or service. A recent example of this is the company Old Spice and
the rebranding of their body wash with use of the “Old Spice Guy”. The series of
commercials features a charismatic and charming “ideal man” speaking directly to
women informing them of how Old Spice will change their man into an “ideal man”,
and the character speaks to women in a humours and cleaver manner. “According to
AdAge, the campaign had 40 million views its first week online, and since the
campaign launched, Old Spice body wash sales have gone up 107 percent” (Doran
21). In all cases, running an advertising campaign requires that a company provide
an incentive for consumers. In the case of humour, the company running the
advertisement is offering free entertainment to the consumer in exchange for taking
the time to watch the advertisement (Cowan 85).
An argument one might have against the use of humour in long-term
marketing and advertising campaigns could be that the more the same joke, or in
this case commercial, is played for consumers to view, the quicker it becomes old to
consumers, and looses the appeal it had when the campaign first launched. If a
company chooses to use humour in their advertising campaign, they have to be
prepared to update the campaign often and provide consumers with new content on
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a frequent basis. “We often hear that a joke that gets repeated too often ceases to be
funny, so you run the risk that the advertising message will start to wear out fast”
(Adding Humour 38).
Another issue that would face companies when trying to use humour in
advertising campaigns would be proper execution. Humour can definitely be an
amazing way to get the message of a company into the minds of consumers;
however if it is executed poorly then it could damage the entire reputation of the
company, and the company may have to go to great lengths to make up for any
offense that was taken by consumers. A prime example of this happened with the
company Popchips. The company launched a television commercial featuring a
celebrity actor who played the role of 4 different bachelors on a television dating
show. As one character, the actor’s skin was painted brown, the actor used an Indian
accent and the actor danced as though he was a Bollywood actor. The character was
perceived as racist by consumers, and Popchips then pulled the ad video and issued
a public apology saying it was meant to be a spoof and cause a few laughs (White 2).
Not only did this advertisement cost Popchips a lot of money to produce, it
ultimately ended up causing consumers to look down on the brand as opposed to
thinking of the brand in a positive way.
Fortunately for marketers, planning for obstacles like this while preparing a
marketing plan is something that can easily be done. Going back to the example of
the Mayhem commercials run by Allstate Insurance, they produced and released
over 20 different Mayhem commercials knowing that variety is key to ensuring
success in this particular advertising campaign. In order to prevent the problem of
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having a humourous campaign running dry, there has to be a wide variety of
advertisements that consumers see and take note of on a regular basis. Poor
execution is a bit more difficult to try and plan for as a company does not usually
know of poor execution until backlash has already happened, and because one
advertisement might be taken in perfect context to some people, but may be
perceived completely differently to others. It can prove as extremely difficult for
companies to figure out what will be funny for their average consumer. Humour is
an extremely subjective topic, and what is funny to one person may be the complete
opposite to another. “The difficulty is, the special alchemy that makes some
campaigns funny and others duds is hard to define” (Cowan 85).
Humour has proven itself over and over again to be a successful approach
when it comes to designing an advertising campaign. There are many examples of
how humour has been effectively used to portray a message from one company to
millions of consumers, and how it has successfully helped companies increase sales
exponentially. The way Kmart used a play-on-words to add humour to promote
their message of free shipping and how Allstate Insurance used everyday scenarios
to relate to their customers in a humourous manner are perfect examples of how
companies have used humour successfully to yield amazing results. Although
humourous advertisements may run dry if there is a lack of variety, or may be
executed in the wrong manner, companies can usually implement strategies to
forecast and avoid such negative consequences. Humour has proven itself to be
extremely effective, if not more effective, than non-humourous advertisement
campaigns.
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Works Cited
"Adding Humor To The Advertising Mix." Best's Review 112.9 (2012): 38. Business
Source Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Print.
Cowan, James. "Viral Ads That Smell As Good As This Guy." Canadian Business 83.7
(2010): 85. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Doran, Ryan. "Advertising Success Loosens Traditional Ties." Westchester County
Business Journal 46.50 (2010): 21-23. Small Business Reference Center. 29
Mar. 2014. Web.
Smith, Jacquelyn. The Most Unforgettable Ad Campaigns of 2013.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/12/17/the-mostunforgettable-ad-campaigns-of-2013/, 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
White, Martha. What Were They Thinking? 10 Ads That Sparked Controversy.
http://business.time.com/2012/07/05/what-were-they-thinking-10-adsthat-sparked-controversy/slide/more-lists/, 1 Jul. 2012. Web.