BUSINESS AND ADVERTISING

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BUSINESS AND ADVERTISING

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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(No Transcript)
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LOGICAL INFELICITIES

• Name Calling
• Ape Lincoln, bleeding heart liberal, male
  chauvinist pig
• Glittering Generality
• our Christian heritage, unquestioned patriotism,
  silent majority
• Plain-Folks Appeal
• kissing babies, eating Polish sausages, fried
  chicken, or blintzes
• Stroking (Argument ad Populum)
• 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)
• Ku Klux Klan, as American as apple pie
• Bandwagon
• the Pepsi generation, Blings Icies
• Faulty Cause and Effect
• frisby suck, when I wash my car it rains.
• False Analogy
• Dont change horses in mid stream.

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STILL MORE LOGICAL INFELICITIES

• Begging the Question
• rhetorical question, Why did you murder your
  wife?
• The two-Extremes Fallacy (False Dilemma)
• America, love it or leave it. Youre with me, or
  youre against me.
• Card Stacking (Cherry Picking)
• 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 RANKS MODEL

• INTENSIFY
• REPETITION
• ASSOCIATION
• COMPOSITION
• DOWNPLAY
• OMISSION
• DIVERSION
• CONFUSION
• (Eschholz 437-438)

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BILL LUTZS 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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• It helps reduce psychological distance between
  management and non-management.
• It minimizes formality and makes it easy and
  comfortable for people to communicate across
  levels.
• It fosters camaraderie and team spirit.
• It promotes positive rather than negative
  reinforcement.
• 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
• Its interesting that hard skills are considered
  better than soft, but when people go into
  management, its the soft skills thatmake 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, youve 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, Thats it.
  Im 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 peoples 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

• MURPHYS 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
  cant it might.
• OTOOLES LAW Murphy was an optimist.
• DAMON RUNYANS 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.
• PETERS COROLARY PRINCIPLE When people are
  doing well they will be promoted, which means
  that everyone not upwardly mobile is
  imcompetent.
• MARSHALLS GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM
  Seven-eights of everything cant be seen.
• PAUL HERBIGS PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC
  TINKERTOYS If it can be understood, its 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
  Cubicles-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. Martins, 2005, 421-493.
• Federman, Sarah. Whats 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, 255-312.
• 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).