The document explores the relationship between humor and advertising, asserting that comedic elements can create emotional connections with consumers, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of ads. It discusses how brands such as Bud Light use humor and familiar faces to target specific audiences, especially during events like the Super Bowl. The effectiveness of humorous ads is debated, with studies suggesting that while humor helps in memorability and engagement, it may not always lead directly to increased sales.

1. Humor &
Advertising; How
They Relate & Do
They Work?
By Olivia Tovar
CWID 101

2. What I Know…
– This is a subject that is completely relatable because I can think to myself, “have I ever
watched a commercial or ad that introduces their products using comedy?” Yes, I have.
I can remember a few actually that will stick with me forever. When I think about how
humor can help advertising, I like to put into a perspective of something that I am in the
market for. Would I buy a product that didn’t pursued me? Or what about a company
that has a bad reputation for their advertising? Believe it or not a brand’s reputation
will affect the customers trust and interest in your product as a company. Although it
may be stating the obvious, companies are wanting to draw attention to their viewer
through their commercials. It may or may not always work, but I tend to see a pattern
within ads.

3. How Does Comedy Engage and
Influence Advertising?
– There are a few categories in advertising
that, in the past, had a tendency to show
big accomplishments that the companies
were trying to succeed.
– Cute
– Sexy
– Sweet
– Funny
– Using Familiar Faces
Why do companies use these?
It can hold an emotional connection
with the audience that can get them
to “tune” in a bit more.
Tim Washer, a social media and
marketing manager for Cisco
Systems, states, “advertising that
makes people laugh can create an
emotional connection between the
consumer and a company, product
they are selling, and/or service.
Advertising is the
communication with
consumers that persuades
them to take interest in
their products, service, or
ideas.
I wanted to start off by finding
the sole purpose and
reasoning behind comical
advertising. The first article I
read, Dan Dennett quotes that
the five things stated across,
triggers Americans to form
positive relationships.
Another statement that
caught my attention was that
sales never come first in
advertising. It’s ironic because
that’s what you would
assume, wrong. Ben Franklin
says, ”If you would persuade,
you must appeal to interest
rather than intellect.”

4. Celebrities and Advertising
– I’m sure many of us have came across an ad on television that shows famous rapper
Drake or singer Steven Tyler. To be honest, I have, and I found each one of them to be
oddly funny. “Win the hearts and minds of America. This is what a Super Bowl ad
needs to do,” says Gretchen Walsh, a senior vice president at advertising giant
McKinney who has worked on several Super Bowl ads. If advertisements use people
who are fairly common within America, it definitely will catch the attention of those
watching. Below is a link that provides helpful information to celebrities and their
collaborations with company advertisement.
– http://fortune.com/2016/02/07/super-bowl-ads-spend-millions/
In the link above shows an
article with a very helpful
video. In the video, there is
about a dozen of
commercials that
collaborates with celebrities
to attract attention.

5. Targeting Crowds
– While the infamous Super Bowl commercials tend to target the social group of
football lovers, which is a large group, they may also use specific commercials
that can relate to the crowd that is tuning in on the Super Bowl commercials.
For instance, Bud Light and Tostitos seem to make their appearance almost
every other commercial break.
– If we focus in on Bud Light and the reasoning for their campaigns we can see
a trend. Bud Light likes to focus on friends and socializing, while centering
beer to be the advocate. One of their biggest goals in to, “connect with
drinkers who are gravitating to wine and spirits and trendy craft brews.”
(Schults, 2017).
I decided to include Super Bowl
commercials because companies
are known to make their
appearance with new and funny
ads during this time. At this point,
I was also wanting to incorporate
the Verizon vs. Sprint battle for
another good example of
humorous advertisement.

6. Comedy and Bud Light
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNWatifmMRE
– Above is a recent Bud Light commercial that uses
comedy within their advertising. The man wishes for a
vendor but instead ends up regretting it. Bud Light uses
comedy in this commercial when they show the repetitive
vendor popping up in situations that aren’t fitting for him.
But as he returns to where he originally came from, it
shows a plethora of people who are gathered to do a
handful of things; watch a sport they enjoy, socialize,
and purchase Bud Light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Cb5Wk
2t-8
• Bud Light incorporated a few things in their
recent “Dilly Dilly” commercial (listed above).
Knowing that the popular TV show, “Game of
Thrones” introduces a new season and
season finale, the company was quick to
create a comical commercial that relates to
Game of Thrones. The strategy of this was to
grab the attention of not only those who are
tuning in on the Bud Light commercial, but to
those who share an interest with Game of
Thrones while adding in a comical twist.
Perfect attention grabber!
I started to notice
that Bud Light is a
great example
because the crowd
that they target has
a very wide range. It
can be from the ages
of 21-45. Now, if you
think about it, that’s
quite a bit of people
with very different
senses of humor. It
may also be difficult
for Bud Light
because of exactly
that, different senses
of humor. But they
tend to stick to what
they do best, alcohol
consumption and
socializing. When
people think of
alcohol consumption
they usually think of
laughs, a good time,
friends, and a place
that one enjoys.

7. Does it work?!
– Now that I have shown a few example of comical commercials, does using humor actually
work? According to Advertising Age, a study done by Ace Metrix, which used a scoring
system based on the factors of watch ability, likeability, and persuasion, found that humor
alone does not make an ad effective. It can enhance the desire and make the content more
memorable to their viewers. But, Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, states, “If you’re equal
on relevance and information, almost always funny will win…because it drives the other
scores like likeability and attention,”
– Humor in advertising tends to improve and enhance sells that brands are reaching for. In a
recent article, writer Victoria C. of Experience by Simplicity states, “One of the major keys
to a successful humorous campaign is variety…they have to keep things interesting, because
old jokes die along with their products” (2017). Being repetitive might make the consumer
grab for the remote rather than catching their attention and getting them to tune into the
brands products.
In my first peer reviewed
article, it brought up a good
point by stating that not all
advertisements aren’t for
selling their consumers
products but simply making a
mark on television. Think of an
ad you saw that didn’t sell you
anything but made you bring it
up in a conversation. For
example, the famous Verizon
“Are You There” guy made a
huge statement on television
by switching companies that
he advertised for. He didn’t
sell us anything, he instead
made an unexpected move
that made consumers think,
“Why?”, “what happened?”,
“Is Sprint better than
Verizon?”. He simply made
Verizon customers rethink
their service and there was
definitely conversation about
it.

8. “Verizon’s ‘Can You Hear Me Now’ Guy
Now At Sprint”
– When you look at the comparisons of Verizon and Sprint,
there isn’t much except price. Paul Marcarelli, now a Sprint
consumer, states, “guess what, it’s 2016, and every
network is great. In fact, Sprint’s reliability is now within 1%
of Verizon.” Although he is not bashing either company, he
makes a point.
– Sprint states that their main goal is to get their viewers to
”pay attention”. In the year of 2014 Sprint beat both
AT&T and Verizon in sales and new customer rates.
One line that Marcarelli
uses at the end of the
commercial is, “So I
switched to Sprint and
millions more have too.
Can you hear that?”
which brings up my point
of the ”humorous irony”
I found this article very
helpful to my research
because it takes a break
from comedy and
focuses on irony, which
in general, in humorous.
While Marcarelli did not
make snarky remarks
about his previous
sponsorship with
Verizon, he make
informative facts to
peruse consumers to
think more highly of
Sprint.

9. Overall…
Overall I feel that humor doesn't necessarily give advertising the benefit of the doubt and is the
determining factor of the consumers, but rather it enhances the company’s focusing points.
For Bud Light, it gives the combination of socialization (humor) and alcohol consumption a
pairing factor. You can’t have one without the other. Super Bowl commercials don’t usually
take just any advertisement. In order to be shown on tv during this time, it takes hundreds of
thousands to millions of dollars. It is priced so high because the Super Bowl provides an
extremely large audience at the same time.
For Verizon and Sprint, it left the viewers questioning the position of the famous face and
leaving them in awe. Because of this, it got their attention to focus in on the company's
changes.
I was able to find the research I needed but didn’t necessarily find the research that answers
my initial question. I was hoping to find statistics of ads that included humor and if they were
successful. Instead, I ended up finding ads that supported my statement and I was able to
make statements with data references.
I enjoyed my research
through the peer reviewed
articles. They didn’t
necessarily relate solely to
my topic but gave a great
background knowledge. I will
in the future use this method
to get a good sense of what
my research is about. I found
that in the commercial world
it is all about attention
grabbers.

10. Work Cited
Joseph, Chris. The Impact of Comedy on Advertising. Hearst Newspaper, LLC.
E.J Schultz. “BUD LIGHT TRIES TO RESURRECT ITS PUNCHLINE PERSONALITY IN AD
EVOKING 'GAME OF THRONES'.” AdAge, 25 Aug. 2017
Mitchell, Elizabeth S. “Funny Ads: Effective, or Just Good for a Laugh?” AdWeek, 16
July 2012.
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Maynard, W. Barksdale. "Thoreau's House at Walden." Art Bulletin 81.2 (1999):
303. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Nov. 2002.
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt, Germany. “The Third-Person Effect in
Advertising: A Meta-Analysis.” Vol. 46, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 377–394
Associate Professor, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain). “Humour in the graphic
advertising of Spain's General Directorate of Traffic (1960-2009).” no. 70,
2015, pp. 765–781.