The Use and Effect of Humor in Different Advertising Media
Marc G Weinberger, Harlan E Spotts, Leland Campbell and Amy L Parsons
The use of humor in advertising represents an investment of billions of dollars each year in campaigns. Historically though, great copywriters such as Claude Hopkins (1923) and Rosser Reeves (1960) suggested that advertising should never seek to amuse. After all, they reasoned no one buys from a clown and humor only draws attention away from the message intent. It was not so long ago that even the fabled David Ogilvy (1963) issued...