Show me a person that doesn’t like to laugh and i’ll show you a liar. Humor is one of the strongest emotions. Every guy or girl wants to meet somebody who’s funny. The same goes for marketers. Humor has taken over advertising by storm and many see it as the sure fire way to improve your brand image and awareness. But hold on a second. Haven’t we seen miserable attempts at humor in advertising in the past? Here’s an example of when an attempt at humor goes bad:
This advertisement is by Kmart in 2013 entitled “Show Your Joe.” It features 6 men moving their midsections in boxer shorts to the tune of jingle bells. While there are people who think that this advertisement is comical, many took this as inappropriate and distasteful. I mean come on, you can’t have six guys shaking their “you know whats” to the tune of a song without some backlash!
The next advertisement has to do with the flip side of humor in marketing, when marketing teams hit it out of the park! In this video of Dollar Shave Club, the owner of the company uses a great mixture of humor and the right amount of information the customer needs to make a purchase decision. Maybe more important is the type of humor used in the advertisement. They know exactly who is watching the video and who will buy their product! Since this product is directed towards males who shave on a regular basis, it makes sense to use humor that middle age men would like. Knowing your target market is more important than ever when attempting at humor in advertisements.
In this marketing example, Kmart decided not to stray away from the humor approach and it paid off. This commercial is advertising the free shipping promotion with a play on word, telling people that they can “ship their pants.” Unlike their last advertisement, the chance that somebody could be offended or put off by this ad is much slimmer. While there were still some that thought this was a little vulgar, Kmart did what they set out to do and that is improve brand awareness and get people to know that they have free shipping! Humor in advertising is nothing without being able to explain product offerings or the basic question of “what do you do?” Kmart definitely accomplished that.
Overall, using humor in your marketing plan can reap a gold mine of benefits, when used correctly. What you think is funny is not the same thing as what others think is funny. Take the first Kmart video, many people found this disgusting but some loved it. You have to think about who you are trying to sell to and what type of humor they enjoy and what they don’t. Doing this type of research is particularly important when you are basing your whole marketing campaign after it. If you do all of this and play to your target audience’s sense of humor while making sure to communicate the intended message, you are on the way to a successful campaign!