Frequently Asked Marketing Question

Does humor really work in ads?


Answer: Actually, as you'd expect, people really like humorous ads. But, they have proven more appropriate in ads for products that people are not really involved in (that is, products that they don't spend a lot of time thinking about. In those situations, customers get a lot of positive feelings due to the humor in the ad.

Humor is also good at getting attention - which is a precursor of generating a positive attitude (remember, don't confuse attention and attitude - these are totally different things).

Having said all of this, the most important thing to remember if you are going to use humor in your ad is to make sure that what you are selling is intimately tied to the humor. Else, people will only pay attention to the humor and ignore your product. So, in essence, don't use humor for the sake of the humor.

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