If Cannes Lions 2022 has a singular united theme, it was “purpose.” Indeed, it’s perhaps been the unifying theme for the last decade. In the ensuing 12 months, however, we’ve all been purposed to death so when it came to the theme of 2023, it was always going to be a complete 180.
It’s been a tough year, you see, and in times of strife we often turn to humour to help guide us through the darkness. That’s why, according to creative effectiveness platform System1, the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners from the US and UK were trying to make people laugh again.
The major trend in 2023 was the continuing return of humour as an award-winning element. Over half the Film Lions winners (52%) were intentionally funny, a jump from 43% last year, and a Film Grand Prix went to Apple’s “RIP, Leo”, a darkly comic take of a lizard and his pet sitter.
The turn to humour comes at the expense of brand purpose, which has been one of the dominant and most controversial elements in advertising for the last 5-10 years. Last year, five award-winning ads employed brand purpose - defined as a purpose-driven ad for a brand outside the charity/NGO sector. This year, only one award-winning ad fit that definition, Apple’s “The Greatest”, a Silver Lion winner focusing on its work adapting its devices for customers with disabilities.
“The Greatest” was a success with general audiences as well as juries, with its inspirational stories and addictive soundtracks landing a 3.8-Star score. But it was the only non-humorous ad to score 3-Stars or more on System1’s Test Your Ad platform.
The highest-scoring awarded ad, McDonalds’ eyebrow-driven “Raise Your Arches”, hit 4.7-Stars with its delightfully whimsical office story, whose eyebrow meme managed to march its way into the UK’s wider pop culture. The Bronze Lion winner was the only 4-Star ad among this year’s awarded work.
Apple managed two 3-Star ads, with “The Greatest” and the slapstick school race in “Action Mode”. Marmite’s “Baby Scan” was another hilarious fake-documentary in its “Love It Or Hate It” campaign, and Uber Eats’ bizarrely comic dancer in “Cowboy” also both got 3-Stars.
All these ads show that fun ideas, surreal executions and edgy humour can have broad public appeal as well as tickle the Cannes juries’ fancy.
But looking at the overall scores this year, it’s clear those ads are exceptions. Despite the shift in approach away from purpose and towards humour, award winners still aren’t testing better than the average video ad. Winners on average hit 2.1-Stars on Test Your ad compared to the global average of 2.2-Stars.
The results show the one real problem with humour as an effectiveness tactic. People need to find it funny. The Cannes-winning ads are humorous but time and again there is a lot of negative emotion mixed in. That might be sadness (Apple’s “RIP Leon”), fear (Blockbuster’s “Until The Bitter End”) or even anger and disgust (“Pot Noodle’s “Nothing Fills A Hole Like A Pot Noodle”). When those negative aspects influence people’s overall response and crowd out positive emotion, the ads become less effective.
Negative emotions have a big role to play in effective, emotional advertising, but a lot of the award-winners push the negative elements hard and fail to resolve them early or well enough.
“More and more brands are realising that to grow you should entertain for commercial gain - so it’s great to see a return to funny advertising,” said Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer at System1. “Humour is a time-honoured way of helping to create positive feeling and capture attention. McDonalds, Apple and Marmite show you can do surreal, satirical and slapstick comedy and not only win a Lion but win over the broader audience as well.”
In a nutshell, edgy humour that makes marketers laugh often fails to connect with the world outside the marketing bubble. The emphasis on entertaining is a big step in the right direction. But to entertain for commercial gain, juries need to understand that the world doesn’t necessarily share a marketer’s edgy sense of humour.
