A third of ads use humour and this is in decline

Rob Clapp

An overview of humour in advertising.

One-third of ads use some form of humour and those that do are more effective, but this has been in decline since the global recession of 2009, according to research from Kantar.

Only 33% of the ads analysed by Kantar incorporate some form of humour, despite half of its Creative Effectiveness Award winners using humour.

Recent winners of the WARC Awards for Effectiveness have also used humour to stand out among consumers, including supermarket Aldi and restaurant chain KFC.

Humour is used most often in TV (37%) and YouTube (30%) advertising but is less...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

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