Humor has a more positive rather than negative effect on Persuasion (or on consumers)

Humor has a more positive rather than negative effect on Persuasion (or on consumers)

Abstract:

The relationship between humor and persuasion is complex. The effects of humor are of great interests to advertisers and consumers alike. Humor is intended to amuse and entertain people and to convey light-hearted enjoyment. Humor is used in persuation where its use in persuasion elevates the mood of the subject. During persuasion, the mood is an important element to consider. Additionally, humor is an effective advertisement tool that ensures that the customers remember the product being advertised. Challenges arise in Interpreting humor where it depends on various aspects affecting the target group. The use of humor in persuasion may cause the audience to deviate from the main point. More experimental research on effects of humor is underway given by the fact that companies and organizations have adopted the use of humor in advertising their products.
Humor has a more positive rather than negative effect on Persuasion (or on consumers)

Introduction

            Humor is intended to amuse and entertain people and to convey light-hearted enjoyment. The effects of humor are of great interests to advertisers and consumers alike. Use of humor is most prominent in the field of advertising where the advertisers are particularly interested in how they can improve the consumer’s memory for their products because remembering a brand name is an important requirement before purchasing the advertised product. This is in the belief that humor will increase the acceptance and persuasiveness of their advertising communications (Smith 1993). The effect of humor is related to the impact of emotion on memory. Research has shown that humor attracts attention and enhances effective promoting purchases. There have been constant arguments especially between researchers on whether humor has a positive or negative effect on consumers.

Positive Reasons

            The use of humor in persuasion elevates the mood of the subject. During persuasion, the mood is an important element to consider. In the field of advertising, the mood of the advert should capture the audience to ensure that the message is delivered. The advertiser should ensure that the mood of the advert captures the attention of the target group. The use of humor in advertising has been one of the influential ways to bring out a positive mood in the advertisement. The use of humor in the advertisement elevates the mood of the advert thus capturing attention. According to research by Smith (1993) reviles that advertisements with humor grab the attention of more people compared to advertisements without humor. The use of humor in persuasion influences the audience’s first impression about the advertisement. The joke performances used during persuasion elicit different reactions from the audience. A joke used to bring a feeling of happiness has a great impact on advertising of the product (Smith, 2009). A joke is likely to linger in the mind of the customer for a long time. Product awareness leads to curiosity to try out the product thus influencing sales. Advertisements that have this effect on customers use humor to influence the mood of the customers. The use of humor in persuasion can also be evaluated using key words or features in the advertisements. Some advertisements have strong key features used to deliver the message to the customers (Batra & Stayman, 1990). The advertisers need to study the culture and religion of the audience and ensure that the advertisement is not bias. The Muhammad cartoons elicited mixed reactions across the globe sparking protest from the Muslims as it was against their religion to draw Muhammad cartoons.

Humor is an effective advertisement tool that ensures that the customers remember the product being advertised. The humor used by the advertiser should address the product to ensure that the joke does not overpower the intended message. The use of humor is mostly used when there is stiff competition between many players in the same industry. The companies make adverts that will capture the attention of many customers thus luring them to their brand. Customers are likely to buy a brand with an advertisement that is humorous compared to other brands in the market (Raskin, 2009). Advertisements for some products are basic and are not appealing to the customers. Some companies ensure that the advertisement captures the advantages of the product being offered. The use of humor tools in the advertisement makes the advert appealing. The use of humor enables the company to communicate the intended message to the user. Red Bull energy drink advert is an example of a company in the energy drink market that used humor to make its product appealing. The company used a sales pitch that advertised the product a drink that gives the customer wings. The advertisement was appealing to many of its customers translating its popularity to sales. Advertisements are meant to be short videos, statements or pictures that increase brand awareness in a competitive market. In the case of videos, accompany may decide to use a short documentary to advertise their product. The use of humor will be useful in retaining the attention of the customers. The presence of many channels allows the customers to witch channels especially during commercial breaks. A company should ensure that long advertisements utilize humorous tools to attract and retain the attraction of customers (Freud, Strachey, & Gay, 1990).

            Consumers enjoy commercials that have the capability of amusing them. Anything that is considered funny has invasive value and grabs attention. It is said that humor is used in more than 30 percent of all advertisements (Raskin, 2009). Given by the fact that consumers are aging, they are developing a more comic view of life with this maturity. This enhances their attention to more humorous advertisements as it helps them to laugh in order to escape from the reality of life’s problems. The uses of humor on persuasion makes the consumers watch, laugh and remember the advertised products. Research has shown that many consumers are more likely to remember a humorous commercial than a non-humorous one (Schmidt 2012). To ensure successful advertisements, promoters must make sure that the humor is directly connected to the benefits of the product being advertised. This means that the humor must fuse the features of the product and its advantages to the consumers so that the consumers are able to remember and purchase the product. It is important for advertisers to put into consideration which humor to use in different media publications. For example, comparison humor is brought out in a magazine advertisement for Hewlett Packard. Comparison humor entails combining two or more concepts to produce a humorous situation. In the advertisement, there are two pictures of a conservative son and a rebellious son. This combination brought out the intended humorous effect to the consumers. Personification humor attributes human characteristics to plants, animals and objects. A good example of this is the Benson & Hedges advertisement portraying cigarettes engaging in human activities (Raskin 2009).

Fig. 1

Humor brings about laughter which is important in the lives if human beings. It is said that laughter protects human beings from diseases and emotional stress. It reduces the likelihood of high blood pressure and heart attacks. Therefore, advertisers who use humor in their advertisements are helping to save lives in their quest to promote their products. Humor also aids the consumers to better comprehend the advertisements and products. Humor boosts liking. It is reported that there is a strong link between humor and liking when it comes to advertising. It is important to note that when advertising, humor must be related to the products. This is because related humor is more effective to consumers than unrelated humor. Humorous advertisements do better than non-humorous advertisements in projected, initial, sustained and overall attention of consumers. Humor makes the consumers like the advertisers and their products. For example, coca cola’s brand image is loved all over the world because of their constant at producing comical television advertisements. Another example is the Gillette Mac III advertisement of a father and a son competing for the mother’s attention. Both of these companies spend a lot of money and time in ensuring that their advertisements meet the comical effects they desire and their relentless efforts that have them among the best brand names in the world. Surprise humor includes advertisements where humor arises from unexpected situations. A good example of surprise humor is the Primestar Satellite TV, which makes good use of the element of surprise to arrive at a sidesplitting outcome. Surprise humor is not very common on televisions but more advertising agencies are adopting its application due to its lasting effects (Freud, Strachey, & Gay1990).

Negative Reasons

Interpreting humor depends on various aspects affecting the target group. Interpreting humor may be tough for people in areas with high illiteracy levels (Batra & Stayman, 1990). This affects the processing capability of the people to associate the humor with the message being communicated by the advertiser. The advertiser should ensure that there is no communication barrier between the people and advertiser before releasing an advert. The advertiser should also evaluate the usability of the product being advertised and try to relate the advertisement with the use of the product. Persuasion fails in the event that the people being persuaded do not understand the advert. Advertisements should also be easy to understand. The audience will usually give up following an advertisement if it requires high levels of concentration (Smith, 1993). Cultural and religious differences also influence how people interpret humor. The cartoon of Muhammad was interpreted by the western nations differently compared to the interpretation by the Muslim believers. The cartoons caused mixed reactions from the public thus the need to evaluate the religion and culture of the audience before using humor. The use of humor in persuasion should be relevant to the message being passed. In the event that the humor is stronger than the message, the audiences tend to forget the message. The relationship between the humor and the message should be easy to understand. When covering the global market, it is important to evaluate the effect the humor tool will have on the global audience. A company may prefer to translate the advertisement used in one region to a language understood by another region. It may be tough to interpret humor using different languages as in some regions it may be considered a bad joke (Prentice, 1993).

The use of humor in persuasion may cause the audience to deviate from the main point. The aim of persuasion is to communicate a message that will promote the product. Most advertisements show how the customer can use the product while others show the advantages of the product. Advertisements cost the company a lot of money thus should ensure that the targeted customers get the message. The advertiser should advertise long advertisements that may divert the message being communicated (Haurtvedt, 1992). The advertisement should also be easy to understand to ensure that all the customers can relate the advert to the product. The product or message being introduced to the audience should be easy to identify and should make up most of the advert. The literacy levels among the audience can also affect the use of humor in persuasion. Coca Cola sponsorship of a football team can be interpreted differently by people in an illiterate society. Some of the audience may associate the advertisement with the football team rather than the brand name. Translation of humor from one language to another may affect the message being passed negatively (Isen, 1984). The advertiser should ensure that during the translation process members from a different region are present. The use of satire may result in deviation from the main message as the customers try to figure out the satire used. Complicated messages do not attract the audience thus the message should be brief. The advertisement should be well structured to ensure that the use of humor does not cause deviation from the main message. Very brief adverts may also cause confusion thus the need to focus on the on the main message. The advertiser should ensure that the humor used in persuasion does not dilute the main message to maximum effect.        

            Humor is culture-bound and is not always internationalized. This implies that what is considered funny in one country may be misunderstood and considered unintelligent in another (Prentice 1993). This affects organizations with products that have a variety of consumers both locally and internationally. For example, Mike’s Hard Lemonade advertisement became offensive to some of the viewers because they felt it was overdone and annoying. Therefore advertisers need to be careful the advertisements they air to their local and international consumers. Humor is said to have a negative effect on comprehension. It is possible that humor could be redirecting people’s attention away from the information in the advertisement. This is most common in cases where there is little or no relation between the humor and the advertisement. The target audience will watch the advertisement but will not have an understanding of the product and this might affect their decision on the purchase of the advertised product. As much as humor helps to grasp the attention of the consumers, the decision to purchase the advertised products is ultimately up to the consumers. The funny advertisements do not compel the consumers to buy the products. Some people feel that humor wears out quickly on repetition and as a result is not persuasive in the end. Companies that have their advertisements running for too long on television or radio create disconnection with their consumers because their consumers get bored with watching and listening to the same advertisements. There are consumers who have preconceived negative attitudes towards certain brands. To such consumers, the use of humor in advertising the products will not be as effective as expected. When humor is added to hard-sell approaches, it decreases the level of persuasiveness. When humorous advertisements are run during times when the target audience is not able to watch the advertisement then the desired effect of the advertisement will not be realized (Haurtvedt, 1992). Companies have to make sure that their advertisements are run at convenient times for their target audience in order to promote persuasion in purchasing their products. Humorous advertisements that have run for too long tend to become boring to the consumers. It is always important to produce fresh advertisements at regular intervals in order to retain the attention of existing and new consumers.

Conclusion

In summary, the relationship between humor and persuasion is complex. The role played by humor in persuasion is dependant on many factors; target audience, product of advertisement, and medium of advertisement. Advertisers take advantage of humor to create consumer-friendly advertisements for their products but they are also aware of the possibilities of their advertisements failing to attain the desired objectives. Advertising professionals and researchers almost unanimously agree that humor attracts attention and generates awareness. This is because there are some strong points against this perception. Given by the fact that companies and organizations have adopted the use of humor in advertising their products, it is important to note that it could have positive and negative effects on their target audience. In addition, more research regarding this context needs to be done with special reference to the ages of target audience, their gender, existing attitudes towards different brands and other variables.

Appendix

Figure 1- Page 72, Chapman, A. J. (1995). Humour and laughter: Theory, research, and applications. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
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