Funny Ads

â€Å"Humour certainly succeeds in getting people’s attention and is the most effective advertising strategy of our time. † Advertisement is one of the important things for a company’s marketing. It can say that in today’s modern life advertisement plays a key role in order for any company or product to succeed the advertisement must deliver a powerful message which attracts the consumer’s attention (Creativenerds 2010). That is because â€Å"advertising can achieve communications object such as informing people about brands, it can create awareness and it can move people closer to choosing one brand rather than another. (Blithe 2009) Humour has become a mainstay of advertising campaigns and has proven to be one of the most effective methods ever devised for selling products and creating a positive brand image (Clayton n. d. ). That is because Funny advertisements are a way to make sure they provide something different to the eyes of customers to s tand out in the crowd of products of services (SloDive n. d. ). Advertising is defined as a paid insertion of a message in a medium, and it is probably the most prominent of all marketing activities.Non-marketers often think that advertising is all that marketers do, which is of course not case the definition specifically excludes anything that is not paid for, or anything that does not pass through a medium, or anything that does not convey a message (Blithe 2009). However, it is true that using humour in advertisement can get people’s attention but it is not the most effective advertising strategy of our time. This essay will firstly show the disadvantages of using humour in advertising with some examples, and secondly, it also mentions some benefits of funny advertisement together with an example.The last thing is the recommendation about an advertising strategy. It is clear that the most obvious advantage of funny advertisement is that it does get more attention from cons umers and is better like. That is because humour is not only one of the best ways to captivate your audience’s attention but it also makes a product or service easier to recall or remember. People will probably love to  remember things  that make them smile or laugh and making people recognize a product is the most important thing for company’s marketing. The quote from presidiacreative is the good example. Humor is the best medicine, and this holds true in advertising as well, humor is one of the best ways to captivate your audience’s attention. Whether the humor is blatantly obvious, or a subtle joke, funny advertisements are always appreciated by the public, which is why so much effort goes into Superbowl ads. † (presidiacreative 2011) Furthermore, funny advertisement can get more attention because most people like funny things and it put them in a good mood. People love to be entertained that is why laughter has an enormous power when it comes to  advertisements.If asking some people about any advertisement that they seem to remember up to this day, more than 80 percents of them will think about  advertisements  that made them smile or laugh. They will relax and pay more attention when they know that advertisement has a sense of humor. Also, it create a more comfortable atmosphere and positive image for the company as Mr. Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, said â€Å"If you're equal on relevance and information, almost always funny will win over unfunny ads because it drives the other scores like likability and attention. (Neff 2012) Another advantage of using humour in advertising is that it can persuade people to buy products. Many people decide to buy the product because they like the advertisement. That is why the advertisement has a lot influence on circulation. According to Bhatti’s survey (2012), more than 50% of the current Vodafone customer is the result of effective funny advertisement created. Moreover, for a dvertisement, creativity is most important, and funniness is an extra added bonus for success. The Huggies advertisement is the very good example. It was successful funny advertisement because it conveys the message that a kid with a serious bladder problem can be contained. † (Hollis 2011). From two reason mentioned above it can understand that the advantages of using humour in advertisement are that people tend to enjoy it more, remember it, talk about it and then ultimately purchase a product. If a brand manager or a marketer always remembers that as long as people smile, they will surely buy. On the other hand, trying to use some serious approach in advertisement can make people find it boring and they will skip your advertisement (Sterling 2012).Although funny advertising has some advantages, it also has a lot disadvantages. The first one is that it can make consumers laugh but do not make them buy and the worst thing that could happen, and does happen, is for people to n otice the advertisement and remember the joke, but not the business (Theselfemployed n. d. ). It is true that funny advertisements are useful for entertaining viewers, but are not the most effective way for advertisers to convince those viewers to buy the product. There was a report about this point from Ace Metrix.It presented that â€Å"Funniness had little correlation with effectiveness in a scoring system that incorporates watchability, likability and persuasion among other factors. In fact, funny ads were slightly less likely to increase desire or purchase intent than unfunny ones. † (Neff 2012) These means that perfect ad is one that is appealing and memorable and effective all in the same breath (Pride et al. 2007). As Mr. Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, said â€Å"Just being funny doesn't make an ad better, but being funny, relevant and informative are the things that really make an ad work† (Neff 2012).Secondly, some viewers cannot understand what those ads w ant to advertise. That is because there are a lot of jokes, slangs and spoken language in funny ads, so some people can understand but some people cannot. Nigel Hollis (2011), chief global analyst at Millward Brown, a global market research company, said that â€Å"Humor is culturally specific. Subtle references and puns tend to travel badly. † This is the example of one of the viewers’ opinion on the incomprehensible funny advertisement. I'm confused by the latest TV commercial for Adidas running shoes. The one that has the guy running through the city, and everything gets disrupted when he runs by it. Waterbeds explode, tractor trailer tires blow out, balloon floats deflate, a kid gets knocked off a pogo stick. At first I thought it was because the guy's feet smelled so bad he was causing all of this to happen, but the commercial is for a running shoe, so they wouldn't do that. † (Sassone 2005) This will make the company lose the group of people who cannot unde rstand he advertisement. A lot of people simply do not have a sense of humours, so if they think that the advertisement is not fun or they do not understand it, the company will lose these people immediately, and the potential size of the market will shrinks (Professional Advertising n. d. ). Thirdly, not all ads can be funny. It is believed that advertisement is a representative of company so if companies use funny things in ads that should not be funny, it will provide bad effect to companies’ images. In addition, advertising humor can backfire.If companies make a joke at the expense of any one group, they will surely alienate them. For example, many years ago, in Thailand, there was disrespectful act toward Buddha in one restaurant’s poster to make people fun. As a result, a lot of Thai people blamed on that restaurant and were banned it. This is because Buddhists who see a Buddha image placed in an improper place will feel very unhappy and may become subject to con flict arising from such situations. (Knowingbuddha n. d. ). Finally, some people cannot get any information from funny advertisement while some get bored with the same jokes.As the Professional Advertising said â€Å"The first time we see it we may laugh out loud. But after a while, although we still may smile at the joke, it’s not so funny anymore. Funny ads need to be replaced periodically. † (Professional Advertising n. d. ) Generally, when someone got the jokes, those jokes are not funny anymore. In the same ways as a funny advertisement, the first time people see the advertisement they will feel fun and interested, but they will find it not funny anymore when they see it again and again.Additionally, some advertisements have a lot of funny things but less information. In fact, giving information about a product is the most important of advertising and using humor is a supplement. Although funny advertisements drive the great advertising attributes such as attentio n and likeability, low information and relevance on many funny ads results in creating lower desire for the advertised products than non-funny advertisements (Tuttle 2012).This is the same concept as Michael Curran, Resource Manager at Capgemini, that â€Å"If an ad is merely funny and does nothing to bolster the featured product’s attributes, however, it’s probably a failure, no matter how funny the ad is. † (Tuttle 2012) In conclusion, Funny advertisement can get attention from viewers but it not always makes them buy a product. Besides, some people cannot understand what the ad wants to advertise and they sometimes cannot get anything about the product but fun. Also, not all ads can be funny.As a result, using humour in advertisement is one advertising strategy but it cannot be used with all advertisements and it is not the best way. It is recommended that companies should take care in considering what’s best for their brand. Don’t just jump on the funny band wagon because everyone is doing it. Every product must have its own proper way to advertise, so if a company can find that proper way, it will succeed in advertising. Some products are suited for funny advertisement but some are not, so companies should think carefully before advertising their product. Word count: 1670