The Lucrative Business of Laughter: Humor’s Role in Advertising
While this year has been one for “Dadvertisements” and other heartfelt ads, there’s nothing like a good laugh. Whether it comes in the form of a talking chihuahua pining after Taco Bell or a man on a white horse praising Old Spice, humor has always played an important role in advertising and there’s no better time to meditate on this phenomenon than April Fools’.
So what exactly is humor and why does it lend itself so easily and so successfully to advertising? While there are many theories, the current consensus is that humor results from confounding expectations. Neuroscientist Heather Berlin studied talk-show host Jon Stewart’s comedic punch lines and conversations and noted that Stewart repeatedly made connections between people and things that were novel to others. Comedy, then, showcases divergent thinking, or “thinking outside the box,” which not only delivers the exciting “surprise factor,” but also entertains in a much deeper way by making new connections in the brain. That “ah-ha” moment in a joke or that point in a comedy sketch that makes you double over in laughter is your brain taking in something unexpected, making a novel linkage, and releasing dopamine, which explains why laughter makes us feel so good. Even before we knew of dopamine and our body’s other “feel-good” chemicals, thinkers like Immanuel Kant and Henri Bergsom espoused the “incongruity theory,” which centers on the satisfaction resulting from the resolution of cognitive conflict, whether that comes in the form of a pun, witticism or riddle. When told a joke, your brain resolves the “conflict” presented and “gets it,” which makes us feel good.
Aside from the dopamine release, humor has other physical and social benefits. In Ha!: The Science of When We Laugh and Why, Scott Weems shares how humor can improve cardiovascular health, providing a similar calorie burn and heart benefits as jogging. Activated in the brain, humor even makes you smarter. Weems quotes studies showing “that simply watching Robin Williams’s standup improves your ability to solve insight problems and other general problem-solving ability tasks.” So humor is a form of physical as well as mental exercise.
More important to advertising, however, is humor’s social effects — how it helps us connect to strangers, choose people with whom we’d like to affiliate, and deepen existing relations. Below are ways in which advertisers have harnessed humor’s social gifts to create successful ad campaigns, and ultimately, successful brands.
Laughter helps you connect with consumers. My mom always told me to make jokes in awkward situations, which I always regarded as questionable advice (sorry Mami). A University College London study, however, proved her right, finding that laughter acts as social lubricant, helping people open up and connect to one another faster. After exposing participants to three different videos — a funny stand-up comedy routine, a pleasant nature documentary, or a neutral golf tutorial — the UCL researchers asked for short bios. The participants who had seen the humorous clip were more likely to include more personal details — embarrassing anecdotes, humbling details, or simply individual minutiae that went beyond where they’re from and their favorite food. Alan Gray and his team attribute this phenomenon to the endorphin production that follows laughter. Endorphins make individuals more relaxed when communicating and play a role in forming social bonds. Given these findings, it makes sense that making someone laugh is a quick means to forming a relationship with that person. In advertising, humor is a means of connecting with the consumer. Coca-Cola illustrates perfectly how laughter helps people connect to your brand and as well as to others in its “Happiness Machine” campaign.
“Inside jokes” give brands and their consumers social currency.[Consumers want to be in on the inside joke]. Another way ads can connect with their consumers but also stay top-of-mind is by going beyond a single joke or funny ad, and dive into the realm of “inside jokes.” Dos Equis man spurred countless memes echoing the “Most Interesting Man in the World” character and his catchy and imitable punchline. When one person quotes (or more likely, co-opts) the phrase, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis,” a whole scenario and developed character instantly come to mind and a connection is formed between people who have seen the ad. It becomes more than a joke. Robert Provine discusses this in Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, where he points out that humor is oftentimes more than a punchline, it’s about relationships with others. Humor is social, and harnessing that social element is what makes campaigns like “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign so successful. Facilitating connections between people helps brands stay top-of-mind and familiar. They provide social currency for consumers who then share the ads on social media, imitate its protagonist at parties, and oftentimes make it their own inside joke in the form of memes and other share-able content. It spurs a deeper connection, both with the brand and with others.
A funny brand is a smart brand: Humor helps showcase a brand’s ingenuity and vitality. One evolutionary explanation for humor is that being funny is a means of communicating genetic fitness, since there is a strong correlation between humor and intelligence. In addition to being a marker for intelligence, in the ad world, humor is also a marker for vitality. Old Spice is a wonderful example of an older, established brand that used funny advertisements to re-position itself as a young and inventive brand. The “Smell like a Man, Man” campaign featured an attractive “man your man could smell like” in laughably “manly” situations — in the locker room, on a boat, on a white horse — parodying the ideal embodiment of a man. The commercials went viral online and were very successful in capturing the attention of millennials and developing a following. Today, Old Spice continues to make ads in the same humorous vein.
Funny ads attract attention, make it easier to connect to brands, and are memorable. In sum, they are what we watch repeatedly, what we share online, and what we repeat at social gatherings. Humorous ads have social currency, which leads to relationship-building and ultimately to greater brand awareness and higher sales. So now that we know what humor is and what purpose it serves, it becomes easier to understand why it’s such a successful marketing tactic. Obviously, there are risks involved — being funny is difficult and failure to produce laughter can underwhelm, offend, or confuse an audience. Still, a well-received, humorous ad campaign is worth striving for, as these ads not only have the potential to generate more revenue, but they can also engender greater affection for a brand.
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