Weinberger and Gulas (1992) explore how, whilst there is an
increasing use of humour in advertising, there is not much evidence exploring
the effect of this tactic. It could be assumed that the use of humour could aid
a business in their likeability factor and serve to be more memorable yet it
could be argued that humour does not persuade, and might not actually help the business,
instead making the audience not take them seriously.
Riecken and Hensel (2012) discuss how humour draws attention
but can be difficult to use successfully in advertising, in terms of resulting
in a purchase. One of the main reasons humour is used in advertising is because
it is considered to improve the recall rates of the adverts; Hansen et al (2009)
found that the use of humour increased memory of the actual advert but was not
successful in the recall of the brand. In this way, it could be considered that
the advertisement is not effective for the company yet it may be argued that if
the advert is remembered, it could lead to peer discussion which may result in increased
brand awareness.
Although humour is useful for being attention grabbing of
its target audience, the same could be said for the use of the fear appeal. The
fear appeal is where the advertisers using a negative consequence if the
product is not purchased to motivate a consumer buying (Williams no date).
Williams (no date) continues to discuss why the fear appeal is as effective in
recall as it is centred on the viewer’s emotional wellbeing, and the
effectiveness of this appeal is shown through the increased use by advertisers.
It would appear that in comparison to the fear appeal, the humour appeal is not
as effective as perhaps it first appears. On the other hand, Mukherjee and Dubé
(2012) raise issues with using the fear appeal in advertising; they argue that the
increased fear arousal induced by the advert may result in the viewer becoming
defensive and so, not having high recall of the advert because of the negative
feelings it invokes. In this way, a humour appeal could be far more successful.
Mukherjee and Dubé (2012) continue to explain that the use of fear and humour
in an advert combined can result in a higher level of arousal overall, resulting
in more attention being paid.
Weinberger (1995) would support this view that the use of
humour can sometimes be misdirected; he argues that humour should never just be
amusing, although this could create a likeability factor for the product and
brand. This is because Weinberger (1995) feels that the target audience might miss
the advertising message if they are purely just amused, and so, this would make
the advertising ineffective. This could be compared to other advertising
tactics, such as comparative adverts where the direct comparison between two
products could ensure the target audience will not miss the main message as comparison
adverts appeal to a viewer’s more logical side rather than their emotional,
like in the use of humour appeal. Ash and Wee (1983) argue that comparative
adverts are useful but could result in consumers feeling more negative towards
the original brand because of comparing them.
A contributing factor to how effective humour is might
depend on the media used for the advertisement. As Weinberger (1995) explores,
there is no evidence to prove which media is more suited for humorous
advertising although expectations are towards television over other media.
Another factor Weinberger (1995) discusses is the product type and whether it
is high involvement or low involvement. As humour draws more attention, he
believes that it is best suited for low involvement products that otherwise might
be missed. Zhang (1996) supports the use of humour for low involvement products
after explaining the lower the cognition needed, the more effective the advert
is. He continues to expand that the initial attitude to the brand also is a
supporting factor to how well the humour is received; an advert that makes the
audience laugh will promote a good response to the brand so in this way humour
can aid the audience’s response to the brand.
Kelly and Solomon (1975) explore that the direction of
humour when used in advertising is pivotal to how well received the advert is;
it appears that the humour needs to be related to the product for it to be
enjoyed rather than just with the view of being funny. Expanding this further,
it could be argued that humour is subjective and is affected by the viewer’s
cultural background and what they personally find humorous. In this way, it
could be considered that using humour is risky as the target audience might
find it amusing to them personally, and so have a negative view of the brand.
An example of subjective humour could be a sexist advert; Groza and Cuesta
(2011) research that opinions of using sexism as a source of humour range from
viewing it as not harmful and funny to being extremely offensive. In this way,
trying to harness humour could result in being harmful to the brand as a whole.
On the other hand, Ouidade (2012) argues that the more risky an advert is perceived,
the higher the audiences arousal level; resulting in a higher level of
attention and recall. Based on this,
using humour in advertising might be useful due to increased arousal level it
could result in.
Overall, there are positives and negatives to the use of
humour in advertising. There are various factors that influence the
effectiveness of humour, such as the individual differences of the audience,
cultural factors and the involvement of the product. In comparison to other advertising
tactics, such as comparison or the use of fear, advertising could be argued to
be both more and less effective, again depending on the surrounding
factors. In conclusion, using humour in
advertising would appear to be increasing, appearing to be considered popular,
but the rate of effectiveness for a business can vary so should be considered
in depth before being used.
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