Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

If there’s one thing that wins me over in an advertisement, it’s effective use of humor. I mean, who doesn’t love a funny ad? I for one have been known to spend the better part of a Friday night looking up my favorite funny ads of all time and showing them to my husband for what’s probably the twentieth time. (It’s always funnier the twentieth time, right?)

Knowing that some funny ads might make your day a little brighter or serve as inspiration for your next project, the HOW team couldn’t help but curate a little collection below, including some old favorites, some we’ve recently discovered and some so weird you can’t help but laugh, plus a couple of vintage ads for good measure....

You’ve been on those conference calls with clients—the ones where you go around and around in circles, trying to nail down the brief, only to get so much confusing and conflicting information that you come away hopelessly pretzeled.

Aardman directors have been there. And today, the animation company—perhaps still best known for Wallace & Gromit, but involved in a slew ofadvertising productions over the years—has unveiled “Visualize This,” a 2:25 comedy film that parodies just those kinds of calls. Agency and production company execs everywhere will feel the pain of the director, as he tries to get clarity on just what, exactly, this client wants....

Caleb Warren, assistant professor of marketing in the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management and lead author of the research, conducted a series of experiments that found different ads can be equally humorous to consumers but have very different effects on brand attitudes, depending on the type of humor used.

The research is based on the concept that people find humor in “benign violations” — that is, material that somehow threatens their sense of well-being, personal identity or beliefs, but in a harmless or inconsequential way. For example, a comical Reebok ad featuring an “office linebacker” tackling other office workers represents a benign violation, because viewers know the violence is staged and no one is actually being hurt.

But even benign violations can cross a line, according to the research, which explored the effects of “mild” versus “severe” benign violations on brand attitudes. According to Warren, advertisers should stay away from ads that feature highly inappropriate humor, humor with a specific target or “butt of the joke,” and humor that prompts avoidance by eliciting feelings such as disgust in addition to laughter....