Humor in Advertising

Written by Mark Levit


Many ofrepparttar most memorable ad campaigns around tend to be funny. Advertisers use this strategy to attract customers to their product. Audiences like to be entertained, but not pitched. People will pay more attention to a humorous commercial than a factual or serious one, opening themselves up to be influenced. The key to funny advertising is assuringrepparttar 100534 humor is appropriate to both product and customer. The balance between funny and obnoxious can often be delicate; and a marketer must be certainrepparttar 100535 positive effects outweighrepparttar 100536 negative before an advertisement can be introduced.

The best products to sell using humor tend to be those that consumers have to thinkrepparttar 100537 least about. Products that are relatively inexpensive, and often consumable, can be represented without providing a lot of facts, and that’s where there’s room for humor. Candy, food, alcohol, tobacco and toys/entertainment related products have proven to benefitrepparttar 100538 most from humor in their campaigns. One ofrepparttar 100539 most important things to keep in mind is relevance torepparttar 100540 product. An example of an extremely successful humorous campaign isrepparttar 100541 series of “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” commercials. The star, a tiny talking Chihuahua who is passionate about his Taco Bell got people repeatingrepparttar 100542 company’s name acrossrepparttar 100543 country. The repetition ofrepparttar 100544 company name andrepparttar 100545 actual content ofrepparttar 100546 commercial reinforcerepparttar 100547 message in a relevant manner. Taco Bell saw a substantial rise in sales and their own mascot became a pop icon.

Another point to consider when using humor in advertising is that different things are funny to different people. A commercial that

What was it you wanted?

Written by Steve Hawker


When browsing classified ads,repparttar first task is to chooserepparttar 100533 best periodicals or websites. This can be trickier than it sounds because there are thousands of ‘sources’ onrepparttar 100534 market today. Browsers need to weighrepparttar 100535 potential value of each source againstrepparttar 100536 associated time and monetary costs. In so doing, they need to be aware of any editions aimed at special interests or locations, and their issue dates. Then browsers need to buyrepparttar 100537 latest correct editions, or findrepparttar 100538 best websites and join any membership schemes they impose.

Having selected their sources, browsers should begin withrepparttar 100539 index, if one exists. Often, onlyrepparttar 100540 larger and more sophisticated sources have sufficient adverts to justify indexes. If they don’t justify one, it’s usually necessary to read long lists of adverts arranged in alphabetical order. Ifrepparttar 100541 source is large andrepparttar 100542 indexing is good, it’s possible to go straight torepparttar 100543 main class or sub-class forrepparttar 100544 adverts of interest. Browsers need to be wary of allrepparttar 100545 other interesting classes though, which may temptrepparttar 100546 unwary off-task, towardsrepparttar 100547 dark, dark world of impulse purchasing. Static classes labelled ‘Computers & Internet’ are tempting enough forrepparttar 100548 author. Dynamic classes like ‘Hot ads’ on websites are irresistible.

Staying inrepparttar 100549 light and firmly on-task, it’s now possible to focus onrepparttar 100550 main advert class or sub-class of interest. Browsing, at least initially, should be broad and shallow, to ensure that all ofrepparttar 100551 purchasing options are considered on merit. From this research, it should be possible to generate a list of buying criteria, ranging from essential ‘must have’, to desirable ‘could have’ points. This, in turn, could lead torepparttar 100552 best make and model. The beauty of browsing is its very ‘weightlessness’, for want of a better word. Effective browsers scan classified ad captions quickly, skim their descriptions, and only dally when a criterion or interesting product warrants notation. Adverts classified wrongly are skipped easily.

Browsers’ weightlessness is handicapped though when there is insufficient colour contrast betweenrepparttar 100553 paper (background) and text (foreground). Light grey text on lighter grey paper, for example. Other grave handicaps include inappropriate font, and font size, selections; right text justification in columns and display boxes; and other awkward spacing arrangements to do with ‘leading’. Classified ads written solely in italic or emboldened text, and/or with every word underlined, are similarly difficult to read. Those classifieds composed with capitals letters seem intimidating. Whilst those composed with tiny, or extremely tiny, fonts seem too timid to be worthy of much attention.

Whatever happened to short sentences or phrases? Whatever became of correct spelling in classified ads? These qualities complement browsing and illustrate that advertisers care about customers. This said, it appears acceptable to forego some points of grammar and punctuation. To some extent, they seem less important than clear typography, brief sentences and accurate spelling.

Let’s turn now to page layout. What’s needed for effective and efficient browsing is ‘white space’ in which to make notes, or giverepparttar 100554 eyes some respite. What sources often present are adverts crammed into every square centimetre, especially amongst their ‘free’ ads. Even when advertisers opt for display box upgrades to their freebies,repparttar 100555 results aren’t much better. Browsers need to be aware that many of these ‘free’ and cheap ads are constrained artificially by their sources. Hence, browsers may not find many nearly new BMW cars advertised in low-cost adverts. Perhaps this is because cramped ads, sometimes known as ‘wallpaper ads’, seem to merge into one grey blur, if browsers stare at them for too long. Browsing free and cheap ads for inexpensive commodities may require several short sessions.

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