Which would you notice - and respond to?

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Using Humor in Communications
Which would you notice - and respond to?
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Many of the most memorable ad campaigns around
tend to be funny. Advertisers use this strategy
to attract customers to their product. Audiences
like to be entertained, but not pitched. People
will pay more attention to a humorous commercial
than a factual or serious one, opening themselves
up to be influenced. The key to funny
advertising is assuring the humor is appropriate
to both product and customer. The balance between
funny and obnoxious can often be delicate and a
marketer must be certain the positive effects
outweigh the negative before an advertisement can
be introduced. The best products to sell using
humor tend to be those that consumers have to
think the least about. Products that are
relatively inexpensive, and often consumable, can
be represented without providing a lot of facts,
and thats where theres room for humor. Candy,
food, alcohol, tobacco and toys/entertainment
related products have proven to benefit the most
from humor in their campaigns. One of the most
important things to keep in mind is relevance to
the product. An example of an extremely
successful humorous campaign is the series of Yo
Quiero Taco Bell commercials. The star, a tiny
talking Chihuahua who is passionate about his
Taco Bell got people repeating the companys name
across the country. The repetition of the company
name and the actual content of the commercial
reinforce the message in a relevant manner. Taco
Bell saw a substantial rise in sales and their
own mascot became a pop icon.
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Another point to consider when using humor in
advertising is that different things are funny to
different people. A commercial that may leave one
person gripping their sides from laughter may
leave a bad taste in anothers mouth. The target
market must always be considered. Whats funny in
a client presentation may not be funny on an
airplane, at a country club or in a hospital.
Humor in advertising tends to improve brand
recognition, but does not improve product recall,
message credibility, or buying intentions. In
other words, consumers may be familiar with and
have good feelings towards the product, but their
purchasing decisions will probably not be
affected. One of the major keys to a successful
humorous campaign is variety, once a commercial
starts to wear out theres no saving it without
some variation on the concept. Humorous campaigns
are often expensive because they have to be
constantly changed. Advertisers must remember
that while making the customer laugh, they have
to keep things interesting, because old jokes die
along with their products. Mark Levit is
managing partner of Partners Levit Advertising
and a professor of marketing at New York
University. Partners Levit's clients include
Procter Gamble, UnitedHealth Group, and GE
Commercial Finance.
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Ad campaign uses humor to fight colon
cancer January 30, 2002 Posted 1133 AM EST
(1633 GMT) Polyp Man is the new villain in
public service announcements encouraging colon
cancer screening.   By Elizabeth Cohen and
Miriam FalcoCNN Medical Unit NEW YORK (CNN) --
It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Polyp Man,
and he's no superhero. He's the villain in a
series of public service announcements being sent
out to television stations this week. Dressed in
red tights and a bulbous red suit, Polyp Man runs
from doctors in scenes reminiscent of "Cops" or
"NYPD Blue." "He's hilarious," said Dr. Harmon
Eyre, chief medical officer for the American
Cancer Society, which is sponsoring the PSAs
together with the Advertising Council. "I like
the one where he's in a woman's kitchen with his
face smeared with food and the doctors come and
chase him down." The point of the ads is to
persuade people to get tested for colon cancer.
The tag line for the ad is "Get the test, get the
polyp, get the cure." Everyone over age 50 is
supposed to get tested, but only about 44 percent
actually do, according to the cancer society. The
society estimates that half of all colon cancer
deaths could be prevented if everyone got
screening. Even when polyps are benign they
can turn into the perfect breeding ground for
colon cancer. The voice-over in the ads says,
"Colon cancer almost always starts with a polyp.
Get the polyp early and stop colon cancer before
it even starts." The comedic approach to a
health issue is a dramatic departure from
tradition. For example, in 1990, the American
Cancer Society ran PSA's showing graveyard scenes
to make their point, but the ads didn't work,
Eyre said. He says he hopes things will be
different with Polyp Man. "We've done focus
groups by the dozens and people find it
motivational," Eyre said. "They get the message
and recognize it's colon cancer and are supposed
to go to their doctor and get a test." In the
ads, Polyp Man tries to escape from doctors in
scenes reminiscent of the TV show 'Cops'.   He
said only about 10 percent of the focus group
members objected to the ads for making light of a
serious subject.
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At the moment, Geico's market share is 5.6
percentfar below that of the big boys like State
Farm (18.2 percent) and Allstate (10.4 percent).
But Geico is growing fast, and it relies on
direct-to-consumer sales (through a Web site or
800 number) instead of a network of salesguy
middlemen. While its competitors are running
lots of dour ads that exploit our fear of
accidents, Geico stands out from the clutter with
its oddball humor and lighthearted tone. The
company has managed to inject fun into a product
that we resent having to buy and that we
associate with miserable moments. That's no mean
feat.
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You never stop driving a BMW
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Word Play One in a million Last but not
least One thing after another
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Non smoking pub
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Try to figure out the phone number
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Funeral home services billboard ad
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Are there rules to using humor in direct
marketing? Is there life after death? You decide,
but consider the following 10 dos and don'ts as
guidelines 1. Don't over-analyze a humorous
idea. It's funny, or it's not. As Mark Twain
said, "Trying to figure out why something is
funny is like dissecting a frog. You'll come up
with answers, but the frog always dies. 2.
Don't use humor for its own sake. Make it
relevant to your objective. 3. Don't use
humor to deceive or tell a lie. It's a scientific
fact that humor intensifies positive physical and
psychological reactions deceit will undermine
these good feelings and supplant them with anger
and resentment. 4. Do use humor to
entertain. People love to be entertained. (What
do you do in your free time?) 5. Do use
humor to be thought-provoking, but not
offensive. 6. Do test humorous concepts, not
techniques. Slapstick, irony and word play are
techniques, but what is the idea you want to
convey? 7. Do let your reader/listener/viewer
experience the joy of "getting it." You'll make
a friend. 8. Do engage the imagination of
your customers. Theirs may be even bigger than
yours. 9. Do the homework on your customer,
and I don't necessarily mean formal research. A
renowned copywriter from the early days of
advertising called research "putting on my hat
and going out to talk to people." Humor comes
from knowing your audience inside-out. 10.
Don't forget that rules are meant to be broken.
The best humor comes from the edge, where there
are no rules.