Light Relief
The importance of humor in advertising should not be underestimated, in dark times, funny ads can make more of an impact.
Written by
Isobel Bruce
September 6, 2023
3
min read
“I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”
The best joke of the Edinburgh Fringe 2023 came from Lorna Rose Treen, who described the one-liner as “stupid”.
Among a news cycle filled with tales of woe, the headline stood out because of its silliness. In fact, serious stories have become so overwhelming that a study from Reuters found nearly 4 in 10 people avoid the news, in a large part because it affects their mood.
Despite our perceived dislike of negative stories, data would suggest that we exhibit a ‘negativity bias’, with negative news pieces provoking a stronger psychological reaction and garnering more attention than their positive counterparts.
Indeed, from 2016-2018, Facebook gave “anger” emoji reactions to posts 5X as much weight as “likes” when deciding which posts to show other users, because algorithms had learnt that posts that angered people ultimately fuelled more engagement than posts that pleased them.
The same cannot be said for advertising. Humor has been shown time and time again to drive greater impact and engagement for brands over all other emotions, and yet there remains a reticence around embracing it.
In his talk at Cannes Lions 2023 entitled ‘But Seriously Though’, Andrew Robertson (President and CEO of BBDO Worldwide) explored why brands have taken a step away from humorous content (and why they should revisit it).
Kantar studies have demonstrated that humor drives memory, with 90% of people saying they are more likely to remember a funny ad. To a large extent this is because funny ads are more distinct than their serious counterparts. Humor delivers an 11 point increase on Kantar’s distinctiveness measurement.
People aren’t only drawn to funny ads. Brands that double down on humor stand to reap the benefits. As the CEO of Leo Burnett Todd Sampson stated, “Comedy is the hardest thing in advertising. When you get it right, when you get a smile, it makes you want to like that business.”
72% of people say they would choose a humorous brand over the competition, and a study from Oracle found that 48% of people don’t feel like they have a relationship with a brand unless it’s made them smile or laugh.
Despite the wealth of data supporting humor in advertising, research from Kantar indicates that there has been a decline in ‘funny’ advertising since 2002, with notable accelerations in this decline following the 2008 financial crisis, and the global pandemic. It seems as the world has got more serious, so have our ads.
Humor’s decline is especially pertinent in digital advertising. Because digital ads tend to be used for activation, with short term sales commonly the objective, driving for laughter has not been prioritized. Despite the fact that ads that use humor tend to show similar increases in engagement and distinctiveness across all media channels.
But despite serious content feeling more appropriate at these points, Kantar data demonstrates that humor worked just as well in these moments as other times. So while the judgment to remove humor is logical, it wasn’t necessarily correct.
In a similar vein, talking about serious issues doesn’t remove the utility of humor. As Robertson surmised, “you can have a serious purpose but talk about it in a humorous way.”
Dumb Ways to Die is the world’s most shared public service announcement. Launched by Metro Trains Melbourne in 2012 to promote rail safety, it went viral on social media within days of launching. The app connected with the campaign has accrued over 190 million downloads to date, and 4 billion unique plays from every country in the world.
The campaign was the most awarded in the history of Cannes Lions, accumulating 28 Lions, including five Grand Prix.
It demonstrates the outsized impact that embracing silliness can have on a campaign’s success, irrespective of the subject matter the ads are connected to.
While Robertson tracked a steady decline in the use of humor in Cannes Lions winning ads, the class of 2023 bucked this trend. System1 testing of this year's winners suggested that humor is becoming important in advertising again, partially at the expense of humor.
In 2023, while just one award fitted the drive for purpose description, 52% of winners were intentionally funny, up from 43% last year.
But marketers need to ensure that the humor they’re driving towards connects with the outside world (as well as the Cannes Lions Jury). As the System1 report pointed out, “Edgy humor that makes marketers laugh often fails to connect with the world outside the marketing bubble.”
Humor’s impact as an advertising strategy can go beyond building brand distinctiveness. Tyrrells crisps (recently acquired by KP Snacks) used humor to justify a 29% increase in price. On the Strategy Showcase Podcast Dan Hulse, CSO + Partner St Luke’s London, explained how humor was used to build brand equity and place the brand at the top of the pack in terms of value share.
With a historically ‘cheeky’ advertising strategy, leaning on British Pathe films from the 19th and 20th centuries, the revised campaign doubled down on the brand’s quirks, with personality the secret ingredient that made the crisps (or chips) taste better.
Indeed, in taste tests, Tyrrells crisps presented alongside branding focused on the artisanal aspects of the brand performed worse than those accompanied by branding which was intentionally odd-ball and left-field.
The resulting campaign “Tyyrellbly Tasty” combines those pathe films with a layer of silliness on top. Giant crisps and ingredients contrast against the black and white reel, and the whole scene is completed by a plummy British narrator in perfect RP.
For some brands, humor just makes sense. But as Robertson quipped, “If brands are truly looking to make the world a better place, we could do a lot worse than make people laugh (and make some money).”
Solve for X is compiling a list of our favorite funny ads. If you have one to add to the mix, feel free to send it our way.
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