Humour in advertising: It makes me laugh, but was it good for you?

This article explores the way humour works in advertising, develops models for analysing its effective use, investigates the changing response to it, and assesses whether it works differently according to sex.

It makes me laugh but was it good for you?

Ian Sippitt and Chlo Fowler, Leapfrog, take a fresh look at humour in advertising and examine its gender specification

THE USE of humour is more widespread in British advertising than it is in most other countries. Indeed, it has been calculated that at least one-third of uk advertising contains an element of humour. One of the reasons for this is the inherent Anglo-Saxon trait of self-deprecation, typified by comediennes like Jo Brand. The British, generally, have a natural inclination to mock themselves, because they do not want...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands