BUSINESS AND
ADVERTISING
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
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LOGICAL INFELICITIES:

Name Calling


Glittering Generality


kissing babies, eating Polish sausages, fried chicken, or
blintzes
Stroking (Argument ad Populum)


our Christian heritage, unquestioned patriotism, silent majority
Plain-Folks Appeal


Ape Lincoln, bleeding heart liberal, male chauvinist pig
you fine people, heartland of America, backbone of America
Argument ad Hominem

fanatics, lesbians, Lincoln the baboon
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MORE LOGICAL INFELICITIES:

Transfer (Guilt or Glory by Association)


Bandwagon


the Pepsi generation, Blings & Icies
Faulty Cause and Effect


Ku Klux Klan, as American as apple pie
frisby suck, when I wash my car it rains.
False Analogy

Don’t change horses in mid stream.
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STILL MORE LOGICAL INFELICITIES

Begging the Question


The two-Extremes Fallacy (False Dilemma)


America, love it or leave it. You’re with me, or you’re
against me.
Card Stacking (Cherry Picking)


rhetorical question, Why did you murder your wife?
If it bleeds it leads. ct. the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth
Testimonial

Joe Namath selling panty hose, a TV doctor (or a real
doctor) promoting a certain medicine
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HUGH RANK’S MODEL

INTENSIFY:




REPETITION
ASSOCIATION
COMPOSITION
DOWNPLAY:



OMISSION
DIVERSION
CONFUSION

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(Eschholz 437-438)
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BILL LUTZ’S MODEL

Weazel Words








“Help”
Virtually Spotless
New and Improved
Acts Fast
Works Like, Works Against, Works Longer
Like Magic
Up To
Twice as Long
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HUMOR IN BUSINESS

In Humor Works, John Morreall said that
people do their best work when they have
control over their lives and when they feel
they are valued members of a team.
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 57)

Morreall outlined five advantages of
humor in the workplace:
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1.
It helps reduce psychological distance between
management and non-management.
2.
It minimizes formality and makes it easy and
comfortable for people to communicate across
levels.
3.
It fosters camaraderie and team spirit.
4.
It promotes positive rather than negative
reinforcement.
5.
It encourages people to take risks and try new
things.
(Nilsen and Nilsen 57)
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HI RALPH

In Humor at Work, Esther Blumenfeld and
Lynne Alpern tell a story of a group of
women who noticed that at meetings a
male colleague kept dropping his pen so
that he could bend down and look at their
legs.

So before one meeting they printed on
their knees “HI RALPH!”—one letter per
kneecap.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 57)
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ROBERT FROST
 Robert
Frost said, “By
working faithfully eight
hours a day, you may
eventually get to be a boss
and work twelve hours a
day.”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 57-58)
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“SOFT SKILLS”

C. Thomas Howard, director of the MBA
program at the University of Denver said
in a New York Times interview:

“It’s interesting that hard skills are
considered better than soft, but when
people go into management, it’s the soft
skills that…make the difference in career
success” (Nilsen & Nilsen 58).
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LETTUCE AMUSE U

In California, first-time traffic offenders
can go to traffic school rather than having
a ticket go on their permanent record.

In designing traffic schools, Ray and
Linda Regan had less success in
traditional schools than in funny schools.
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 58)
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
The humor in the funny traffic schools is always
“on task.”

One instructor said that an extra reason for
keeping a child safe in a backward-facing car seat
is “If you get rear-ended, you’ve got a witness.”

Another instructor said that most car accidents
happen within 10 miles from home and then says,
“The last time I mentioned that, a guy jumped up
in the back of the class and said, ‘That’s it. I’m
moving!’”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 58)
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HUMOR IN ADVERTISING




In Funny Business: Humour, Management and
Business Culture, Jean-Louis Barsoux said that
there are similarities between good humor and
good advertising copy:
1. They require brevity
2. They open people’s minds to enable them to
have a new viewpoint.
3. People get involved in processing the
message, and therefore remember it longer.
 (Nilsen and Nilsen 58-59)
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A HUMOROUS AD

Volkswagon successfully introduced the VW
Rabbit into the United States with a 10-second
commercial.

It showed two rabbits looking into the camera,
with one of them saying,

“In 1956 there were only two VWs in America.”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 59)
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THE LAWS OF BUSINESS

MURPHY’S LAW: “If anything can go wrong, it
will,” extended to “When left to themselves,
things always go from bad to worse,” and “If
anything can go wrongl, it will, and even if it
can’t it might.”

O’TOOLE’S LAW: “Murphy was an optimist.”

DAMON RUNYAN’S LAW: “In all human affairs,
the odds are always six to five against.”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 95)
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

!
THE PETER PRINCIPLE: “Each employee tends to rise to a
level of incompetence.”

PETER’S COROLARY PRINCIPLE: “When people are doing
well they will be promoted, which means that everyone not
upwardly mobile is imcompetent.”

MARSHALL’S GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM: “Seveneights of everything can’t be seen.”

PAUL HERBIG’S PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC
TINKERTOYS: “If it can be understood, it’s not yet finished.”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 96)
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!!THE FINAL RULES OF BUSINESS

RULE NUMBER 1: “The boss is always
right.”

RULE NUMBER 2: “If the boss is wrong,
see Rule Number 1.”
 (Nilsen & Nilsen 37)
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!!!BUSINESS HUMOR WEB SITES
BUSINESS-HUMOR FUSION (ROZ TRIEBER):
www.humorfusion.com
DILBERT:
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/
HUMOR AT WORK (CLYDE FAHLMAN):
http://home.teleport.com/~laff9to5/index.html
HUMORWORKS (JOHN MORREALL):
http://www.humorworks.com
THE OFFICE:
http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/
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References # 1:
Adams, Scott. The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of
Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads and Other Workplace
Afflictions. New York: HarperBusiness, 1996.
Barsoux, Jean-Louis. Funny Business: Humor, Management and
Business Culture. New York, NY: Cassell, 1993.
Blumenfeld, Esther, and Lynne Alpern. Humor at Work. Atlanta, GA:
Peachtree, 1994.
Bryson, Bill. “The Hard Sell: Advertising in America” (Eschholz
423-435).
Critser, Greg. “Let Them Eat Fat” (Eschholz 476-485).
Cross, Donna Woolfolk. “Propaganda: How Not to Be
Bamboozled” (Eschholz 123-133).
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References # 2:
Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. “I Can Sell You
Anything.” Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers,
Ninth Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005, 421-493.
Federman, Sarah. “What’s Natural about Our Natural Products?”
(Eschholz 471-475).
Flower, Linda. “Writing for an Audience” (Eschholz 88-90).
Hadjistassou, Stella. “I Can Sell You Anything.” Tempe, AZ:
PowerPoint Presentation, March 24, 2006.
Herz, J. C. “A Name So Smooth, the Product Glides In.” (Eschholz
641-642).
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References # 3:
Kushner, Malcolm, The Light Touch: How to Use Humor for
Business Success. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1990.
Liebman, Bonnie. “Claims Crazy: Which Can You Believe?”
(Eschholz 463-470).
Lutz, William. “Weasel Words: The Art of Saying Nothing at All”
(Eschholz 422-451).
Martin, Rod A. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative
Approach. London, England: Elsevier, 2007.
Morreall, John. Humor Works. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, Inc. 1997.
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References # 4:
Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Language to Persuade.” Living
Language Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999, 255312.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace. “Why Big Businesses Break
Spelling Rules” (Eschholz 372-380).
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia
of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT:
Greenwood, 2000.
Twitchell, James B. “How to Advertise a Dangerous
Product” (Eschholz 455-462).
Zinsser, William. “Simplicity” (Eschholz 98-103).
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