Advertisers almost universally want to be clever in their advertising. Humor is the first thing they go for, after clever word play. Is this a good advertising strategy?

The big sin in advertising and marketing is being boring. A market will forgive almost anything else. But a boring sales letter, commercial, or video will generate absolutely no interest in your product. The advertisement must be interesting to the prospect. Not interesting in general, but to that prospect. On the most basic level, something that connects all humans is laughter. Humor grabs our attention, and that’s why it’s often used in advertising.

Many of the 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 assuring the humor is appropriate to both product and customer. The balance between funny and obnoxious can often be delicate; and a marketer must be certain the positive effects outweigh the negative before an advertisement can be introduced. With people constantly using smartphones or distracted by conversation with others, TV advertisers have turned to humor with more frequency to catch the attention of consumers. Once the consumer is watching, the hope is that he or she enjoys the humor and remembers the product in the future.

Is humor ever effective in your advertising? Sure. A viral video should be either very funny or very shocking. This will cause the video to be spread to all corners of the internet. You may even make some sales off of that video. Humor also has a place in advertising because to tends to stick in the mind of the consumer. Humor in advertising makes the company seem a little more “cool” because if the humor. But the humor should never get in the way of the appeal of the ad, which is to make someone want to buy the product advertised. Advertisers should always put Selling first in their ads. After there is a strong appeal in the ad, then you can think of ways to say it in a funnier way. But never let humor get in the way of the selling.

Humor in advertising tends to improve brand recognition, but does not improve product recall, message credibility, or buying intentions. In other words, consumers may be familiar with and have good feelings towards the product, but their purchasing decisions will probably not be affected. One of the major keys to a successful humorous campaign is variety, once a commercial starts to wear out there’s no saving it without some variation on the concept. Humorous campaigns are often expensive because they have to be constantly changed. Advertisers must remember that while making the customer laugh, they have to keep things interesting, because old jokes die along with their products.

Source:
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/advertising/advertising-humor-smart-advertising-choice.html
https://www.experience.com/advice/careers/professions/humor-inadvertising/
https://online.pointpark.edu/public-relations-and-advertising/humor-inadvertising/