Abstract
Humorous appeals are used extensively in television, radio, and print advertising. This article examines the effectiveness of humor in accomplishing specific communications and sales objectives. A brief review of the literature on humorous advertising research is presented. The author argues that previous unsuccessful applications of light-hearted messages are attributable, in part, to our incomplete knowledge of how consumers process humorously conveyed information. The discussion focuses on the importance of recognizing and managing variables which mediate the impact of humor on audience response and on the need for further development and testing of behavioral theory as keys to the effective utilization of humor in advertising.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aaker, David A. and John G. Myers. 1975. Advertising Management. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Appel, Valentine. 1971. “On Advertising Wear Out” Journal of Advertising Research 11 (February), 11–13.
Baron, R., P. Baron and N. Miller. 1973. “The Relation Between Distraction and Persuasion,” Psychological Bulletin 80, 310–323.
Batman, Thomas. 1965. “The Stan Freeberg Syndrome,” Sponsor (March 1) 37–43.
Bechwith, N. E. 1972. “Multivariate Analysis of Sales Responses of Competing Brands to Advertising,” Journal of Marketing Research 2 (May) 168–176.
Bellaire, Arthur. 1977. “Bellaire Survey III Finds Music and Demo Up; Humor, Animation Decline,” Advertising Age (January 3) 17–18.
Berlo, D. C. and H. Kumata. 1956. “The Investigator: The Impact of a Satirical Radio Drama,” Journalism Quarterly, 33, 287–298.
Bither, Stewart W. 1969. “Comments on Venkatesan and Haaland's Test of the Festinger-Maccoby Divided Attention Hypothesis,” Journal of Marketing Research 6 (May) 237–238.
Byor, T. V. 1974. “Don't Spurn Humor-It Can Get You TV Memorability and Sales Punch, Too,” Advertising Age (June 10) 39.
Colley, Russell H. 1961. Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. New York: Association for National Advertisers.
Cone, Fairfax M. 1969. “Advertising Is No Joke; Don't Make It Into One,” Advertising Age (December 15) 47.
Daniels, Draper. 1959. “Humor in Advertising,” in E. R. French (ed.), The Copywriter's Guide. New York: Harper and Brothers, 137–147.
DeBruicker, F. Stewart and Thomas S. Robertson. 1978. “An Appraisal of Low-Involvement Consumer Information, Processing, Attitude Research Conference. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
DeVoe, Merrill. 1956. Effective Advertising Copy. New York: The MacMillan Company, 215–217.
Dunn, S. Watson. 1956. Advertising Copy and Communication. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, 303.
Dutta, S. and R. N. Kanungo. 1975. Affect and Memory: A Reformation. New York: Pergamon Press.
Festinger, Leon and Nathan Maccoby. 1964. “On Resistance to Persuasive Communications,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 68 (November) 359–366.
Gardner, David. 1970. “The Distraction Hypothesis in Marketing,” Journal of Advertising Research 10 (December) 25–30.
Gruner, Charles R. 1965. “An Experimental Study of Satire as Persuasion,” Speech Monographs, 32 (June) 149–154.
— 1966. “A Further Experimental Study as Persuasion,” Speech Monographs 33 (June) 184–185.
— 1967. “Editorial Satire as Persuasion: An Experiment,” Journalism Quarterly 44 (Winter) 727–730.
— 1967. “Effect of Humor on Speaker Ethos and Audience Information Gain,” Journal of Communication 17 (September), 228–233.
— 1970. “The Effect of Humor on Dull and Interesting Informative Speeches,” Central State Speech Journal 21 (Fall) 160–166.
Helson, H. 1947. Adaptation-Level as a Frame of Reference for Prediction of Psychophysical Data. American Journal of Psychology 60, 1–29.
— 1959. “Adaptation-Level Theory,” in Psychology: A Study of a Science, I. Sensory Perception and Physiological Formulations. New York: McGraw-Hill, 565–621.
Hovland, C. I., I. L. Janis and H. H. Kelley. 1953. Communication and Persuasion. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University.
Kelly, J. Patrick and Paul J. Solomon. 1975. Journal of Advertising 4 (Summer) 31–35.
Kennedy, A. J. 1972. “An Experimental Study of the Effect of Humorous Message Content Upon Ethos and Persuasiveness,” Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan.
Kilepla, D. E. 1961. «An Experimental Study of the Effects of Humor on Persuasion,”, unpublished Master's Thesis, Wayne State University.
Krugman, Herbert E. 1965. “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning Without Involvement,” Public Opinion Quarterly (Fall) 349–356.
Lubalin, Peter. 1977. “Humor in Radio,” ANNY (November 4) 22.
Longman, Kenneth A. 1979. Personal Communication to C. Duncan, March 15.
Lull, P. E., 1940. “The Effectiveness of Humor in Persuasive Speech,” Speech Monographs 7 (December) 26–40.
Lynch, Mervin D. and Richard C. Hartman. 1968. “Dimensions of Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research 8 (December) 39–45.
Markiewicz, Dorothy. 1972. “The Effects of Humor on Persuasion,” unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Ohio State University.
Markiewicz, Dorothy. 1973. “Persuasion as a Function of Humorous Vs. Serious Messages or Contexts,” unpublished manuscript, Northern Illinois University.
— 1974. “Effects of Humor on Persuasion,” Sociometry 37 (3) 407–422.
Marshall, John. 1979. “Getting Ahead on Beer,” Daily Journal American (February 5) 2.
McMahon, Harry W. 1969. “Contac and Alka Seltzer Prove Humor Can Sell Big,” Advertising Age (September 8) 90.
Monica, Corbett. 1971. “Six Rules to Help You Make Funny TV Commercials,” Advertising Age 42 (October 4) 46.
“N. E. Mutual Life Scoffs at Death in New Campaign,” 1968, Advertising Age (May 20).
O'Connor, John. 1972. “Humor or Information? WRG Feels Its Recent Ad Efforts Combine Both,” Advertising Age (June 26) 10.
Orkin, Richard and B. Berdis. 1977. “The Funny Thing About Some Commercials,” Broadcasting (June 20) 16.
Phillips, Kalman. 1968. “When a Funny Commercial Is Good, It's Great!,” Broadcasting 74 (May 13) 26.
Pokorny, G. F. and C. R. Gruner. 1969. “An Experimental Study of the Effect of Satire Used as Support in a Persuasive Sppech,” Western Sppech 33 (Summer) 204–211.
Politz, Alfred. 1960. “The Dilemma of Creative Advertising,” Journal of Marketing (October) 1–6.
Schwartz, David A. 1971. “Ads Aren't That Memorable Anyway,” Marketing Communications (August) 25.
Seldes, Gilbert. 1959. “I Laughed Until I Thought I'd Buy,” Tide (January) 24–26.
Starch, D. 1958. “Do Ad Readers Buy the Product?,” Harvard Business Review 36 (May–June) 49–58.
Steadman, Major. 1969. “How Sexy Illustrations Affect Brand Recall,” Journal of Advertising Research 9 (March) 15–19.
Sternthal, Brain and C. Samuel Craig. 1973. “Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Marketing 37 (October) 12–18.
Stewart, Daniel K. 1968. “Some Theoretical Considerations of Current Advertising Research,” Journal of Advertising Research 8 (December) 49–51.
Taylor, P. M. 1964. “The Effectiveness of Humor in Informative Speeches,” Central States Speech Journal 15 (November) 295–296.
Television Age. 1967. (June 5) 28.
Tyebjee Tyzoon T. 1978. “Cognitive Response and the Reception Environment of Advertising,” in S. C. Jain (ed.), Research Frontiers in Marketing: Dialogues and Directions, American Marketing Association Proceedings.
Venkatesan, M. and Gordon A. Haaland. 1968. “Divided Attention and Television Commercials: An Experimental Study,” Journal of Marketing Research 5 (May) 203–205.
Weingarten, Jaala. 1967. “Is ‘Far Out’ Advertising Entertaining the Public More But Selling It Less?,” Dun's Review 90 (July) 27–28.
Winski, Joseph M. 1978. “Tragedy of ‘Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You’ Ads,” Chicago Tribune (August 9).
Winters, L. 1971. Personal Communication to D. Markiewicz. Referenced in: Sternthal and Craig. “Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Marketing 37 (October 1973) 12.
Wright, Peter L. 1973. “The Cognitive Process, Mediating Acceptance of Advertising,” Journal of Marketing Research 10, 53–62.
Zeman, J. V. 1967. “An Experimental Study of the Persuasive Effects of Satire in a Speech Presented to a High School Audience,” unpublished master's thesis, University of Nebraska.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The author wishes to thank Dr. Phillip D. White for his helpful comments and critical review of an earlier draft of this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Duncan, C.P. Humor in advertising: A behavioral perspective. JAMS 7, 285–306 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02729680
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02729680