• by Larry Dobrow , July 12, 2004

Over the years, there has been no shortage of discourse on the role of humor in advertising, with industry legends and self-proclaimed funnymen alike frequently rhapsodizing about its importance. In the wake of 9/11, however, the use of humor dropped sharply as companies fell back on the tried-and-true appeal of family values. Given subsequent geopolitical events, not to mention an administration that emphasizes those values, the amount of humor in ads hasn't yet rebounded to its pre-9/11 level.

But respondents to a MediaPost poll, conducted online by InsightExpress, about the role of humor in today's ad business believe that a comeback is underway. To a person, in fact, industry pundits sense a return to the days of sharp, cerebral wit - not the dot-com days in which viewers, listeners, readers and Web surfers were smacked in the face with punch lines so broad and bawdy that they wouldn't play in dead-end comedy clubs, but the ones in which the smart, selective use of humor actually helped, well, sell stuff.

"The real function of humor, both in ads and not in ads, is to provide a little perspective on events. What better time for that than now?" says Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker and president/founder of The Cartoon Bank.

Adds Scott Cohn, creative director at guerilla marketing experts Night Agency: "People are starting to come back around from the Bush and Reagan family-values style of advertising, which means you aren't seeing as many sweet, sentimental Kodak commercials. The country is getting hipper. This is a good thing."

Respondents say that the rules for humor in ads remain mostly the same. It works best for those products that are nonessential (beer, pizza or pretty much anything else upon which a consumer might lavish his or her disposable income). It shouldn't overshadow the selling message. Its target should be situations, rather than individuals or groups. Of course, all this is easier said than done - "dying is easy, comedy is hard" reads one age-old maxim - and most companies still fail to achieve the proper mirth/message balance.

"You want somebody to laugh, just hit a guy in the nuts," says Ian Crocket, president of Hunter Barth Advertising. "You want them to remember a product, you have to be a bit smarter and more subtle." This subtlety appears to be making a comeback, with Citibank's identity-theft ads and Expedia.com's travel-nightmare ones singled out repeatedly for both punch and punch line.

All this isn't to say that the use of humor in advertising hasn't evolved during the comparatively giggle-free last few years. Experts cite a willingness by more industries than ever before to employ humor in their spots, especially on the radio. One recalls an ad for a left-coast funeral home which noted the dangers of smoking and drunk-driving; the funeral home's name was then mentioned, followed by the tag line "we can wait." Other sectors that have added humor to their marketing mix include insurance (where, it seems, smart-aleck geckos have overwhelmed gauzy portraits of familial bliss), financial services and healthcare. Even the business-to-business space has seen an influx of lighter-minded ads.

As for the immediate future of humor in ads, respondents are wary of a swing in the opposite direction - more off-the-wall zaniness, as if a subconscious reaction to the first few years of the decade. They repeat the context mantra, emphasizing that humor will continue to work best as a supplement to a well-crafted message. And they stress that creative types must to do a better job of suppressing their inner comic.

"You want to sell a car, sell the things that matter to drivers - horsepower and such," Mankoff says. "Everybody in advertising assumes they have THE sense of humor. The people who do this best are the ones who know when to pull back on the reins a little bit."