In his book ‘Damn Good Advice (for people with talent)’, the legendary art director George Lois says, “A creative person who is humourless could never produce consistently great work in communicating with warmth and humanity to the vast majority of the populace”.
He goes on to say, “Humour in advertising and design is like humour in life. People often ask me – ‘Does humour work in advertising?’ – but that’s a stupid question. Does anyone ever ask – ‘Does humour work in life? How can you possibly create without humour? Certainly in all forms of communication, humour is a natural way to win someone’s heart.”
George Lois also points out that, “Humour disarms and makes one more accepting of thoughts and images that could be hard to take in serious discourse. Say something serious in a funny way, and you can win over people every time.”
George is right. Wit wakes up the mind. Recent research shows that most funny ads engage viewers better than straight ads. Take the 8,550 ads shown on evening TV last year in the UK. Compared to straight ads, those using humour were 19 percent more recalled and 50 percent more liked. Even the brand names and the ad messages were better remembered, by 38 percent and 39 percent respectively.
So by simply creating something funny – your work is more likely to succeed.
