Title: Business Humor
1 Business Humor
- by Don L. F. Nilsen and
- Alleen Pace Nilsen
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3Business Trends
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5Creative Advertising
6- Toilet paper Advertisement
- https//www.youtube.com/embed/V_gOZDWQj3Q?rel0
7More Creative Advertising
8This finger on a statue is pointing to a
particular hotel in Stockholm, Sweden
9Second Hand Store
10Fed Ex Arrowsin English and in Arabic
11The Internal Revenue Service
12Bob Mankoffs New Yorker Business Humor
13- CREATIVE HONDA AD
- https//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Dxy4n0UT82o
?rel0
14Two Business Models
15Spaghetti Factory Explain why they are
successful.
16Business Symbolism
17Bad Jobs!
18BUSINESSES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR NEW APPROACHES
- They find ways to make their employees WANT to
come to work. - Offices should be fun to look at and to work in.
- But theres more to it than that.
- Humor consultant John Morreall advises businesses
on how to make employees like to come to work.
- It is fine to decorate an office or pin up
cartoons, but really, it i much more complex than
that.
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20MOTIVATION PROFIT VS. PURPOSE LEVELING THE
HIERARCHY (e.g. Internet, Wikipedia, Skype,
Facebook, Google, Southwest)
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vu6XAPnuFjJcfeature
relmfu
21Businesses which encourage humor also
- Take initiative and risks.
- Do not worry about making mistakes.
- Spend energy on solutions.
- Shoot for total quality.
- Focus on opportunities.
- Do not worry about breaking things.
- Try easier, not harder.
- Stay calm.
- Take responsibility.
- Experiment.
- Smile.
- Have fun.
22To Accomplish These Goals, Companies
- Flatten the organization by reducing levels of
management. - Allow workers more discretion in making
decisions. - Foster creative thinking.
- Accept employee attitudes, emotions, and
suggestions. - Encourage teamwork and collaboration.
23Administrators Views of Humor-in-Business
- A sense of humor makes businesses more creative,
less rigid, and more willing to consider and
embrace new ideas and methods. - In a survey of 737 CEOs, 98 said that humor was
important in the conduct of business. - They therefore gave preference to people with a
sense of humor. - Soft skills are better predictors of success in
management than are hard skills.
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25More Support for Humor
- The director of human resources at Sun
Microsystems watches for how long it takes an
interviewee to laugh or to find something funny - She says that humor is very important in their
corporate futures. - One business created a Grouch Patrol. Whenever
they see someone with a sour expression, they
respond by making a bat face. - This involves pushing the tip of their noses up,
flicking their tongues in and out, and making a
high-pitched Eeeee sound.
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27When Humor Bubbles-Up from Employees, There
Will of Course Be Lots of Variety.
- Practical jokes weve recently heard
- Putting foam packing bubbles in the cubicles of
colleagues who are absent. - A boss going on a three-week trip, and coming
back to find real sod rolled out in his office
just to prove that grass does grow under your
feet. - A door-decorating contest on the cruise ship
taking 12 of their outstanding employees to
Mexico, in which winners had photos of their
faces superimposed on pictures of jungle animals.
- Their slogan was Where the Wild Things Are.
28At our local BEADS GALORE store an employee made
this sign for the window.
- UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE GIVEN TO THE GOBLIN
KING
- APPARENTLY, SHE WAS TIRED OF REARRANGING THE
DISPLAYS.
29Other Examples of Workplace Humor
- A debt collector sent out a letter reading, We
appreciate your business, but, please, give us a
break. Your account is overdue 10 months. That
means weve carried you longer than your mother
did. - A business manager, who made a really bad
mistake, wore a T-shirt with a large red
bulls-eye on it when he went to a meeting about
the problem. - A large IBM sales team improved their record 30
when they formed a pick-up orchestra and recorded
their sales in fun ways, e.g. by blowing a horn,
smashing a gong.
30More Examples
- Esther Blumenfield and Lynne Alpern told about
how four women conspired to get even with a male
co-worker. - At meetings, he would routinely drop his pencil
on the floor so that he could bend down under the
table and look up their skirts. - One day before a scheduled meeting, they used a
magic marker to print on their kneecaps H I
(space) R A L P H. - The CEO of a large Canadian bank appears in a
monthly corporate video shown to all employees
to discuss recent issues and plans. - A hand puppet appears and begins poking fun and
asking him embarrassing questions about recent
problems.
31- Southwest Airlines Boarding Information
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vTxNrizGdhtYappde
sktop
32Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shops are successful
because of their quirky humor.
33Cartoonist Scott Adams draws Dilbert cartoons
which explore these business-related themes
- Downsizing
- Heavy work loads
- Micromanagement
- Humiliatingly small cubicles
- Accelerating pace of change
- Corporate gobbledygook
- Management fads
- Cruel bosses
- Annoying colleagues
- Red tape.
34- DILBERT STREAMING
- http//www.youtube.com/user/dilbert
35Adams encourages readers to send in their true
stories. They are often published on the
Business pages of newspapers.
- A management expert at Apple Computer said,
- There are only two kinds of companies, those
that recognize that theyre just like Dilbert,
and those that dont know it yet.
36Once employees incorporate humor in their daily
lives, it seems natural to extend humor to their
customers and potential customers.
- Volkswagen introduced the VW Rabbit into the U.S.
with a 10-second commercial showing two rabbits
looking into the camera. One is saying, In 1956
there were only two VWs in America. . . - At a California traffic school named Lettuce
Amuse U, the teachers are comedians. They use
humor to relax students. - One teacher explains that an extra reason for
keeping your baby safe in a backward-facing car
seat is If you get rear-ended, youve got a
witness.
37Before a three-day-weekend, the State Highway
Department uses humor by putting lighted
warnings on major highways
38- Cheap Flights
- http//www.youtube.com/embed/HPyl2tOaKxM
39The Arizona Republic gives away umbrellas covered
with reprints of their comic strips.Our foot
doctor incorporates the anti-fungus toenail gang
to tell us to turn off our cell phones.
40Connections between Humor and Advertising
- They both require brevity.
- They open peoples minds to enable them to have a
new viewpoint. - People get involved in processing the message,
and therefore remember it longer.
41An Advertisement for Coke (Coca Cola)
- THE HAPPINESS MACHINE
- http//www.youtube.com/watch_popup?vlqT_dPApj9U
42Match the Slogans with the Products
- The beer that made Milwaukee famous
- B. O.
- Say it with flowers
- When it rains, it pours
- Snap, crackle and pop
- Natures spelled backwards
- Good to the Last Drop
- Rice Krispies
- Schlitz Beer
- Serutan
- American Florist Assoc.
- Maxwell Coffee
- Morton Salt
- Lifebuoy Soap
43Creative spelling made these names memorable and
helped with trademark protection.
- Kwik
- ReaLemon
- Reddi-Wip
- Ry-Krisp
- Krispies
- Tastee-Freez
- Toys ? Us
- U-Haul
- Aspercreme
- Dunkin Donuts
- Haggar Expand-o-matic
- Kwik Kopy
- Playskool
- Sominex
- Whataburger
- Wolverine Durashocks
44The Staying Power of Brand NamesNineteen of the
twenty-two companies that owned the leading
American brands in 1925 still own them.
- Kodak in film
- Nabisco in cookies
- Sherwin Williams in paint
- Singer in sewing machines
- Wrigleys in chewing gum
- Campbells in soup
- Del Monte in canned fruit
- Gillette in razors
- Ivory in soap
- Kelloggs in breakfast cereals
45Why did Band-Aid, Kleenex, Scotch Tape, Thermos,
and Zipper become common rather than proper
nouns?
- These are relatively older products.
- These are benchmark products.
- But today advertisers work to protect their
names so that consumers will look exclusively for
their products rather than for the imitators.
46Ikea A Good Business Plan
47James Twitchell, used his own kind of humor to
criticize Americas market culture. He wrote
- If Greece gave the world philosophy, Britain
gave drama, Austria gave music, Germany gave
politics, and Italy gave art, then America has
recently contributed mass-produced and
mass-consumed objects. - He added that our materialism is a kind of
spiritualism, but instead of looking at the next
life for our rewards, we are looking for The
Nike swoosh, the Polo pony, the Guess? label, and
the DKNY logo.
48Are we influenced by ads?
- People say that they dont pay much attention to
ads. They just tune them out, believing they
have no effect. - In Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels said that the
secret of propaganda is that those who are to be
persuaded should be completely immersed in the
ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing
that they are being immersed in it. - This is where humor comes in. If we are amused
or laughing at a commercial or a program, our
defenses are down and we are more likely to want
to buy whatever is being shown.
49The Power of Advertising
50Inexpensive Fire-Alarm SystemThink about it,
51Products are our friends.
- Alcoholics joke that Jack Daniels is their
constant lover, while smokers feel that
cigarettes are their friends. People are twice
seduced, first by the ads and then by the
substances. - Infiniti is an automobile Hydra Zen is a
moisturizer, and Jesus is a brand of jeans.
52Even ten-year-olds are being turned into COVER
GIRLS.
- Each girl at this weekend celebration in
Louisville brought her American Girl doll. - All the girls were photographed and put onto a
fake cover of a local magazine. - What parent could resist buying it?
53Commercialization teaches people to be shoppers.
- Women are especially targeted.
- Why do teenage girls shoplift more often than do
teenage boys?
54Which of the following statements are gender
marked?
- A womans place is in the mall.
- But I cant be overdrawn! I still have some
checks. - He who dies with the most toys wins.
- Im spending my grandchildrens inheritance.
- Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all.
- People who say money cant buy happiness, dont
know where to shop. - Shop til you drop.
- When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.
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56We will conclude with miscellaneous Laws of
Business developed over the years
- 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 wrong, 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.
57MORE LAWS . . .
- THE PETER PRINCIPLE Each employee tends to rise
to their level of incompetence. - PETERS COROLLARY PRINCIPLE When people are
doing well they will be promoted, which means
that everyone not upwardly mobile is incompetent. - MARSHALLS GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM
Seven-eights of everything cannot be seen. - PAUL HERBIGS PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC
TINKERTOYS If it can be understood, its not yet
finished.
58THE FINAL RULES OF BUSINESS
- RULE NUMBER 1
- The boss is always right.
- RULE NUMBER 2
- If the boss is wrong, see Rule
- Number 1.
59Business Stereotypes
60Secretary and Intern
61Before and After Work
62In Conclusion