The Art Of Funny Commercials

This article looks at the types of humour that can be used effectively to sell products and which types of products they are most commonly suited to.

Humour has become one of the most successful advertising tools and it is used in a variety of forms to attract the largest numbers of customers for a particular product or service. Targeting your humour of your target audience is essential to the success of any funny campaign and in this article we’re going to look at the types of humour and what they are most suited to selling.

Farce
Farce uses severe exaggeration to create improbable situations out of seemingly normal situations. This type of humour is used most effectively to sell products which serve to overcome typical problems many individuals face such

Dark
Dark humour generally makes a joke out of unpleasant situations or possibilities that many of us may fear or dread. It is used most effectively in advertising to sell personal products such as beauty products and also necessities. Dark humour often is used to simulate a potential pitfall that may befall someone who doesn’t use X product on or for themselves.

Screwball
Screwball humour works by using misunderstandings and mistakes that then serve as an opening for comic interaction. An example of this could be a misheard conversation or a complete misreading of a situation. This has been used in a variety of advertising avenues most of which centre around home and personal life. It is an effective device for creating a problem that a product can solve.

Slapstick
Slapstick humour generally involves physical interactions as epitomised in the movies of Charlie Chaplin. It uses elements of farce and “accidental” incidents to create humorous situations. This is not a common technique used in advertising, though it crops up occasionally in adverts trying to create a funny and cool brand image.
Parody
Parody makes fun or mocks reality to create comedy by twisting well known scenes or information. It is used very effectively in advertising to disguise the actual product or situation – making people think one thing is happening when in fact it is another. Possibly the most memorable example of this was the Darth Vader cough sweet commercial.

Satire
Satire is the most commonly used form of humour – both in advertising and across all mediums. It is basically the activity of making fun of human follies and foibles through ridicule and exposition. This is incredibly effective in advertising humour as it allows products to demonstrate why you should have them through exposing human follies and foibles that the products can solve. Most humorous advertisements use satire in combination with other forms of humour to maximise its impact.

If you want to look into funny commercials (e.g. commercials of 2011) in its practical/real use you can check out the http://funny-commercials.org.

About the author:
James is a freelance writer and webmaster with a passion for comedy in all its forms. He is currently running a website dedicated to showcasing the very best in funny commercials from around the world.

About the author
James is a freelance writer and webmaster with a keen interest in all things funny and all things related to the application of humour. He has recently launched a site showcasing funny commercials from around the world including the funny commercials of 2011.

This article examines the relationship between humour and sales in marketing; showing that at the base level laughter is one of the most powerful tools in the advertising repertoire.

Many of us consider ourselves savvy consumers and the truth is that increasingly many of us are. Traditional advertising methods have, for many, become transparent and shamefaced attempts simply to help consumers part with their hard earned cash. That’s not to say these techniques are not still effective (they still are in a lot of cases) merely that they have had to become more adept, more subtle if they are to succeed in growing brand awareness and increasing sales. However more and more people of cautious of advertising claims and are reluctant to take advertisers claims at face value or to believe false promises of desirability or beauty.

This has led advertisers to explore a variety of new advertising techniques and has created a paradigmatic shift away from traditional advertising techniques. They have not gone completely as can be seen in the myriad of beauty and car commercials still littering our media outlets but they have had to change. In the past decades we have seen slews of new advertising techniques including abstract commercials, artistic commercials, post-modern commercials and a variety of stylistic variations. However the key way we have developed is towards humour as a central marketing pillar. But the key question remains – why does humour make us buy things.

The answer to this is a complex one and it hinges on the importance of the traditional advertising psychology upon which commercial marketing is based. Marketing psychology identifies the key aspirations, desires and fears of key demographic groups using a variety of socio-geo-demographic segmentation techniques. These techniques break people up into the identifying characteristics that define people within a social group. Combined with the identification of key fears and desires this allows advertisers to laser target specific fears within a certain social group.

In humour this has proved hugely effective as, put simply, you can make light of a certain groups fears and worries whilst exposing them to a certain product or service. In some cases the product itself will act as a deterrent to a potentially funny (from an outsider’s perspective) situation. The line of logic runs that the audience will go “I’m glad that’s not me” and then buy the product itself to avoid ever falling into the situation themselves. This is a key way in which humour sells and it works time and time again. Not all funny advertising campaigns rely on these emotional triggers – some simply use humour as a way of exposing people to a brand and causing retention of the products they sell. This technique of brand exposure through humour has been shown to encourage people to buy the products in later shopping excursions as it creates positive brand image and positive connotations (of laughter) whenever the product is experienced. These techniques have real buying power and have proved incredibly effective; whilst individuals may rail against advertisers’ techniques, laughter still makes us buy.