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1. Mia Michelle1

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3. Business Trends
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5. Creative Advertising
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6. More Creative Advertising
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7. This finger on a statue is pointing to a
particular hotel in Stockholm, Sweden
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8. Second Hand Store
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9. The Internal Revenue Service
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10. Bob Mankoff’s New Yorker
Business Humor
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11. CREATIVE HONDA AD:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Dxy4n0UT82o?rel=0
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12. Two Business Models:
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13. Spaghetti Factory & Kleenex: Explain!
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14. Business Symbolism
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15. Bad Jobs!
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16. BUSINESSES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR
NEW APPROACHES
An Office at Google
Humor consultant John
Morreall advises
businesses on how to
make employees “like” to
come to work.
It is fine to decorate an
office or pin up cartoons,
but really, it i much more
complex than that.
They find ways to make
their employees WANT to
come to work.
Offices should be fun to
look at and to work in.
But there’s more to it than
that.
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18. MOTIVATION: PROFIT VS. PURPOSE; LEVELING THE HIERARCHY
(e.g. Internet, Wikipedia, Skype, Facebook, Google, Southwest…):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=relmfu
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19. Businesses which encourage humor
also:Take initiative and
risks.
Do not worry about
making mistakes.
Spend energy on
solutions.
Shoot for total
quality.
Focus on
opportunities.
Do not worry about
breaking things.
Try easier, not harder.
Stay calm.
Take responsibility.
Experiment.
Smile.
Have fun.
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20. To Accomplish These Goals,
Companies:
Flatten the organization by reducing
levels of management.
Allow workers more discretion in
making decisions.
Foster creative thinking.
Accept employee attitudes, emotions,
and suggestions.
Encourage teamwork and
collaboration.
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21. Administrators’ Views of Humor-in-
Business :
A sense of humor makes businesses more creative,
less rigid, and more willing to consider and embrace
new ideas and methods.
In a survey of 737 CEO’s, 98% said that humor was
important in the conduct of business.
They therefore gave preference to people with a
sense of humor.
Soft skills are better predictors of success in
management than are hard skills.
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23. More Support for Humor
The director of human resources at Sun Microsystems watches
for how long it takes an interviewee to laugh or to find
something funny
She says that humor is very important in their corporate futures.
One business created a “Grouch Patrol.” Whenever they see
someone with a sour expression, they respond by making a bat
face.
This involves pushing the tip of their noses up, flicking their
tongues in and out, and making a high-pitched “Eeeee” sound.
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25. When Humor “Bubbles-Up” from Employees, There
Will of Course Be Lots of Variety.
Practical jokes we’ve recently heard:
 Putting foam packing bubbles in the cubicles of colleagues who are
absent.
 A boss going on a three-week trip, and coming back to find real sod
rolled out in his office just to prove that “grass does grow under
your feet.”
 A door-decorating contest on the cruise ship taking 12 of their
outstanding employees to Mexico, in which winners had photos of
their faces superimposed on pictures of jungle animals.
 Their slogan was “Where the Wild Things Are.”
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26. At our local BEADS GALORE store an employee made
this sign for the window.
“UNATTENDED CHILDREN
WILL BE GIVEN TO THE
GOBLIN KING”
APPARENTLY, SHE WAS TIRED
OF REARRANGING THE
DISPLAYS.
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27. Other Examples of Workplace Humor
A debt collector sent out a letter reading, “We appreciate
your business, but, please, give us a break. Your account is
overdue 10 months. That means we’ve carried you longer
than your mother did.”
A business manager, who made a really bad mistake, wore
a T-shirt with a large red bulls-eye on it when he went to a
meeting about the problem.
A large IBM sales team improved their record 30% when
they formed a pick-up orchestra and recorded their sales
in fun ways, e.g. by blowing a horn, smashing a gong.
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28. More Examples
Esther Blumenfield and Lynne Alpern told about how four
women conspired to get even with a male co-worker.
At meetings, he would routinely drop his pencil on the floor so
that he could bend down under the table and look up their
skirts.
One day before a scheduled meeting, they used a magic marker
to print on their kneecaps: H I (space) R A L P H.
The CEO of a large Canadian bank appears in a monthly
corporate video shown to all employees to discuss recent issues
and plans.
A hand puppet appears and begins poking fun and asking him
embarrassing questions about recent problems.
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29. Southwest Airlines Boarding Information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNrizGdhtY&app=desktop
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30. Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shops are
successful because of their quirky
humor.
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31. Cartoonist Scott Adams draws “Dilbert” cartoons
which explore these business-related themes:
Downsizing
Heavy work loads
Micromanagement
Humiliatingly small cubicles
Accelerating pace of change
Corporate gobbledygook
Management fads
 Cruel bosses
Annoying colleagues
Red tape.
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32. DILBERT STREAMING:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dilbert
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33. Adams encourages readers to send in their true stories. They
are often published on the Business pages of newspapers.
A management expert at
Apple Computer said,
“There are only two
kinds of companies,
those that recognize
that they’re just like
Dilbert, and those that
don’t know it yet.”
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34. Once employees incorporate humor in their daily lives,
it seems natural to extend humor to their customers
and potential customers.
Volkswagen introduced the VW Rabbit into the U.S. with a
10-second commercial showing two rabbits looking into
the camera. One is saying, “In 1956 there were only two
VWs in America. . .”
At a California traffic school named Lettuce Amuse U, the
teachers are comedians. They use humor to relax
students.
One teacher explains that an extra reason for keeping your
baby safe in a backward-facing car seat is “If you get rear-
ended, you’ve got a witness.”
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35. Before a three-day-weekend, the State Highway
Department uses humor by putting lighted
warnings on major highways:
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36. Cheap Flights:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/HPyl2tOaKxM
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37. The Arizona Republic gives away umbrellas covered with
reprints of their comic strips.
Our foot doctor incorporates the anti-fungus toenail gang
to tell us to turn off our cell phones.
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38. Connections between Humor and
Advertising
They both require brevity.
They open people’s minds to enable them to
have a new viewpoint.
People get involved in processing the message,
and therefore remember it longer.
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39. An Advertisement for Coke (Coca Cola):
THE HAPPINESS MACHINE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=lqT_dPApj9U
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40. Match the Slogans with the Products
The beer that made
Milwaukee famous
B. O.
Say it with flowers
When it rains, it pours
Snap, crackle and pop
Nature’s spelled
backwards
Good to the Last Drop
Rice Krispies
Schlitz Beer
Serutan
American Florist
Assoc.
Maxwell Coffee
Morton Salt
Lifebuoy Soap
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41. Creative spelling made these names memorable and helped with
trademark protection.
Some Early Examples More Recent Examples
Kwik
ReaLemon
Reddi-Wip
Ry-Krisp
Krispies
Tastee-Freez
Toys “Я” Us
U-Haul
Aspercreme
Dunkin’ Donuts
Haggar Expand-o-matic
Kwik Kopy
Playskool
Sominex
Whataburger
Wolverine Durashocks
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42. The Staying Power of Brand Names
Nineteen of the twenty-two companies that owned the leading
American brands in 1925 still own them.
• Campbells in soup
• Del Monte in canned
fruit
• Gillette in razors
• Ivory in soap
• Kellogg’s in breakfast
cereals
Kodak in film
Nabisco in cookies
Sherwin Williams in
paint
Singer in sewing
machines
Wrigleys in chewing
gum
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43. Why did Band-Aid, Kleenex, Scotch Tape, Thermos, and
Zipper become common rather than proper nouns?
Think of other
examples.
These are relatively
older products.
These are “benchmark”
products.
But today advertisers work
to “protect” their names so
that consumers will look
exclusively for their
products rather than for the
imitators.
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44. Ikea: A Good Business Plan
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45. James Twitchell, used his own kind of humor to criticize
America’s market culture. He wrote:
“If Greece gave the world philosophy, Britain gave
drama, Austria gave music, Germany gave politics,
and Italy gave art, then America has recently
contributed mass-produced and mass-consumed
objects.”
He added that our materialism is a kind of
spiritualism, but instead of looking at the next life for
our rewards, we are looking for “The Nike swoosh,
the Polo pony, the Guess? label, and the DKNY logo.”
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46. Are we influenced by ads?
People say that they don’t pay much attention to ads.
They just tune them out, believing they have no effect.
In Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels said that the secret of
propaganda is that “those who are to be persuaded should
be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda,
without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.”
This is where humor comes in. If we are amused or
laughing at a commercial or a program, our defenses are
down and we are more likely to want to buy whatever is
being shown.
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47. The Power of Advertising
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48. Products are our friends.Alcoholics joke that Jack Daniels is their
constant lover, while smokers feel that
cigarettes are their friends. People are twice
seduced, first by the ads and then by the
substances.
“Infiniti is an automobile; Hydra Zen is a
moisturizer, and Jesus is a brand of jeans.”
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49. Even ten-year-olds are being turned into COVER
GIRLS.
Each girl at this weekend
celebration in Louisville
brought her “American
Girl” doll.
All the girls were
photographed and put
onto a “fake” cover of a
local magazine.
What parent could resist
buying it?
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50. Commercialization teaches people to be
shoppers.
Women are
especially targeted.
Why do teenage
girls shoplift more
often than do
teenage boys?
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51. Which of the following statements are
gender marked?
A woman’s place is in the mall.
But I can’t be overdrawn! I still have some checks.
He who dies with the most toys wins.
I’m spending my grandchildren’s inheritance.
Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all.
People who say money can’t buy happiness, don’t
know where to shop.
Shop ‘til you drop.
When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.
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53. We will conclude with miscellaneous “Laws of
Business” developed over the years:
MURPHY’S LAW: “If anything can go wrong, it
will,” extended to “When left to themselves,
things always go from bad to worse,” and “If
anything can go wrong, it will, and even if it
can’t it might.”
O’TOOLE’S LAW: Murphy was an optimist.
DAMON RUNYAN’S LAW: In all human
affairs, the odds are always six to five against.
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54. MORE LAWS . . .
THE PETER PRINCIPLE: Each employee tends to rise
to their level of incompetence.
PETER’S COROLLARY PRINCIPLE: When people are
doing well they will be promoted, which means that
everyone not upwardly mobile is incompetent.
MARSHALL’S GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM:
Seven-eights of everything cannot be seen.
PAUL HERBIG’S PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC
TINKERTOYS: If it can be understood, it’s not yet
finished.
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55. THE FINAL RULES OF BUSINESS
RULE NUMBER 1:
The boss is always right.
RULE NUMBER 2:
If the boss is wrong, see Rule
Number 1.
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56. Business Stereotypes
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57. Secretary and Intern
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58. Before and After Work
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59. In Conclusion:
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