| Humor in advertising; The only time. |
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Humor in advertising; The only time. There is only one time to use humor in advertising…if it helps cement a benefit into the mind of the customer. Being clever ”for clever’s sake” is useless because it focuses the viewer’s (or reader’s) attention on the AD. You want the attention focused on your PRODUCT. I recently saw a TV commercial for Kohler’s Faucets and Toilets. The commercial showed a man viewing a pretty woman dressed as a plumber going into the house next door. So he rushes into the bathroom to try to clog his toilet up, so he will have an excuse to call her. He stuffs the toilet with rags, shampoo bottles, and worse. He keeps flushing it, and it keeps going down the drain. His girlfriend (or wife) walks into the bathroom finding him dumping a huge bag of dry dog food down the toilet. It was funny. But it also freezed into the consumer’s mind the idea that these toilets never clogged. That’s a serious benefit when you’re thinking of buying a toilet. But remember, the humor was useful only because it tied a benefit with it. |