According to research if a person sees two people laughing at a joke they didn’t hear, chances are that they would smile anyway, without even realising. Another study suggests that, laughter is contagious, the explanation behind it is that the brain responds to the sound of laughter and moves the muscles in the face to join in. People often mirror others’ behaviour and copy the words they use as well as mimicking their gestures.
According to a study done by Ace Metrix, measured several factors by using a scoring system based on how watchable, likable and persuasive adverts are. The results showed that funny ads often get more attention and are more liked by the audience but humour alone does not make an ad effective. On the contrary, humourous adverts were found to be slightly less likely to influence desire to purchase a product / service compared to ones that are informative and do not have humour.
Hyundai Super Bowl Commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8
This is an example of an advert by Hyundai that had humour embedded in it, which gained a lot of positive feedback. It aired during the 2016 Super Bowl show which had a peak viewing audience of 115 million in America alone, starring Kevin Hart – a global comedy star, it already had the correct ingredients to succeed.
Most of the memorable ad campaigns tend to be the funny ones. This is a clever strategy used by advertisers in order to attract customers to their product / service. Such as the Hyundai advert with Kevin Hart, it received a lot of reaction online as he himself has a large following and as whatever he does is highly publicised. The ad was also on YouTube which hit over 15 million views and was widely shared.
Heineken famously had a funny advert that portrayed the differences between men and women, click this link to see it: Heineken – Walk in Fridge
Ford Mustang Vine
Advertisers use Vine very well, as they use Vine Stars who are known for their comedy content and that have a big following. An example of this is Rudy Mancuso who has over 10 million followers and almost 4 billion loops (views). Ford use him to promote their products such as the Mustang which is an iconic model that has a prestigious history. They incorporate humour in these six second clips in order to grab the attention of the viewer, whilst almost guaranteeing they’ll watch the video as it is relatively short.
However, people’s opinion on what is funny, for example the viewer may find this particular Vine humourous but when they show it to their friends they may not react in the same way. This is an obstacle that has to be tackled, so that when creating the comical concept it has to take the target audience into consideration and find out what makes them laugh. In addition, marketers have to be careful when targeting different cultures as there will be differences and want to avoid any backlash from viewers or the media.
To see another example of humor within Vine, follow this link that shows how Coachella implemented this: Jus and Wahlid at Coachella
An example of a funny ad gone wrong is when Kohler, the luxury bathroom and kitchen designer created an ad featuring a blind man. The concept was that a blind man who was at a party, went to the bathroom and when washing his hands, he ‘fell in love’ with the design of the sink. The aim of the ad is to portray the elegance and sleekness of their product, however viewers found it offensive to those who have this disability.
Kohler Ad
Here is a link that demonstrated other adverts that came across as offensive to the audience: 30 Offensive (Funny) Vintage Ads That Would Be Banned Today
References:
http://www.livescience.com/9430-study-laughter-contagious.html
http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/funny-ads-effective-or-just-good-for-a-laugh/41589
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/why-funny-tv-commercials-work/247117/