Humorous Ads Research Articles

The influence of health‐related information on variety‐seeking behavior

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore the effect of mood states and gender on the relationship between health‐related information and variety seeking (VS) behavior among food products.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments were conducted to examine the moderating effects of mood states and gender on the relationship between health‐related information and VS.FindingsThe results indicate that sad people incorporate more VS than happy people when health warnings and nutritional labeling are absent, but sad and happy people tend to converge to similar levels of VS when health warnings and nutritional labeling are present. Moreover, males incorporate less VS than females when health warnings are present, while females incorporate less VS than males when nutritional labeling is present.Practical implicationsIn the absence of health warnings and nutritional labeling, it is a wiser way for leading brands to cultivate positive consumer moods by utilization of humorous ads, so that they do not search for varied products. For less well‐known brands, inducing negative consumer moods is a better way to encourage brand switching. Further, providing nutritional labeling will strengthen consumer brand loyalty by reducing their VS, especially for females. As the health warnings reduce the VS for males, marketers may take advantage of this effect by associating brand names with health warnings.Originality/valueAs VS is found to be related to over‐consumption, it is important to investigate the effects of health‐related information on VS. However, little empirical evidence has been found on the effect of health‐related information on VS behavior. Further, this study takes into consideration moderating factors as it is important for marketers to realize how health‐related information interacts with the consumer's VS behavior under different mood states and gender. The findings demonstrate that the relationship between health‐related information and VS is moderated by mood states and gender differences, an important contribution to the research on VS behavior.

The Effects of Humor on Ad Processing: Mediating Role of Brand Familiarity

The effect of humorous advertisement on memory and attitude has been an important topic among advertising scholars. However, scholars have used fake brands to test the effects of humor. Since the possibility for consumers to be exposed to the commercial for a completely new brand is very low, using a fake brand to test humor effects is not realistic. Hence, this study examined the role of brand familiarity on the effects of humor on memory and attitude by using existing brands in a laboratory experiment. This study suggests a different structural model for familiar and unfamiliar brands based on the previous studies in consumer behavior. Results revealed different effects of humorous advertisements for the familiar or unfamiliar brands. The structural model proposed for this study revealed a mediating role of brand familiarity on humor effects. Humorous ads worked better for the unfamiliar brands. For the familiar brands, the effects were mediated by the subjects’ brand familiarity and prior brand attitude.

The Relationship Between Deceptive Claims and Ad Effect: The Moderating Role of Humorous Ads

This study focuses on humor and deceptive claims that have been researched individually. It examines whether advertisements with different types of humor influence the relationship between deceptive claims and the effect of the advertisement. Previous relevant research on this topic used mainly content analysis to investigate these issues and to sort them by different characteristics. Building on these underlying classifications, this study extends the research to investigate the perception of the audience on ad effect. The authors use beer advertisements as stimuli. The results indicate that different types of humorous ads influence the relationship between deceptive claims and ad effect. The authors use t-test and post-hoc to examine whether certain types of humorous ads can cause a superior effect under a fixed deception type. This study finds that vague/ambiguous claims with incongruity humor and false/outright lie claims with arousal-safety humor can result in a better ad effect. This study not only finds that humor plays a moderating role in the field of advertising, but also finds that the consistency between humor and deceptive claims would produce a higher degree of ad effect.

Humor and ad liking: Evidence that sensation seeking moderates the effects of incongruity‐resolution humor

AbstractIt is widely reported that humorous ads are better liked and therefore more effective than are non‐humorous ones. This study examines whether the liking advantage associated with ads containing incongruity‐resolution humor depends on sensation seeking. Higher sensation seekers are assumed to enjoy arousal induction because they are lower in base arousal level. From this it can be predicted that ads containing incongruity‐resolution humor will not be liked better by such people than will equivalently arousing non‐humorous ads. However, the higher base arousal assumed to characterize lower sensation seekers is claimed to be associated with a preference for reduction of induced arousal. Incongruity‐resolution humor provides a mechanism for reduction of the arousal occasioned by the incongruity. As a result, it is expected that lower sensation seekers will like ads containing such humor more than non‐humorous ads matched in arousal to the humorous ones. The results support those suggestions. The relevance of the findings for advertising is discussed, and requirements for further research are indicated. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Humor in the advertising business: theory, practice, and wit

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 1 Historic Attempts at Advertising Humor Chapter 3 2 Theoretically, What's So Funny? Chapter 4 3 Why Typology Is a Funny Word Chapter 5 4 How Does Silly Sell? Chapter 6 5 When Humorous Ads Aren't Funny Chapter 7 6 Campaigns That Made Audiences Laugh ... and Buy Chapter 8 Selected Bibliography Chapter 9 Selected Creative Credits and Awards

Learning Creative Writing by Translating Witty Ads

The aim of this paper is to present a student-centred methodology for teaching creative writing, which involves the presentation, examination, translation and writing of wordplay in English and Italian advertisements. The approach, design and procedures of the proposed method, as defined by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers (1986:28), draw on the insights of Paolo Balboni (1998), Sonia Colina (2002) and Maria González Davies (2004, 2005). After outlining the main theoretical underpinning of this study, the main features of the design and procedures implemented in the teaching of a four-credit module on inter-cultural mediation at undergraduate level are illustrated. Cross-linguistic analyses of a sample set of material consisting of English and Italian humorous ads, together with the production of original puns in the two languages and translations into and out of English, demonstrate the importance of the interaction between language and culture in creative copywriting and ad translation.

“Is That the Mona Lisa?” Art in Advertising and Its Effect on Viewer Perceptions

Ad preferences and product perceptions were examined for advertisements containing a visual juxtaposition of the commodity with an artwork, and for comparison, a similar product’s advertisement without artwork. Art ads were divided into two categories. Serious art ads used the art in its original form, while humorous art ads contained images which were modified to enhance the ad’s message. Interviews with lower and higher cultural capital individuals (LCC/ HCC) suggested that: ( I ) knowledge and recognition of an ad’s artwork are essential for understanding its message: (2) co-option of high art in humorous ads lowers product ratings by HCC individuals: (3) art increases a product’s value for LCC individuals, by signaling that the ad’s target audience is defined by their higher income and social status; (4) art is seen as a powerful segmenting tool for age, education, income, race and social status.

The joint impact of humor and argument strength in a print advertising context: A case for weaker arguments

Humor is used extensively in advertising, but with mixed results. Drawing on the heuristic systematic model of persuasion, the authors explore a contingency underlying the impact of humorous executions on ad and brand attitudes for a convenience good. Results of a laboratory experiment with print ads show that the presence (vs. absence) of incidental humor can interact with message characteristics such that humorous ads engender more positive attitudes when they employ weaker arguments, and less positive attitudes when they use stronger arguments. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Humor in Advertising: The Moderating Role of Prior Brand Evaluation

A consumer's prior evaluation of an advertised brand is hypothesized to moderate the effectiveness of humor in advertising. Further, cognitive responses are hypothesized as mediators of the impact of humorous ads on brand attitude. The results support the hypothesized moderator role of prior brand evaluation: when prior evaluation of the advertised brand is positive, a humorous ad is more effective than its nonhumorous counterpart in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior. When consumers have a negative prior attitude, the opposite is true: a humorous ad is less effective in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior than its nonhumorous counterpart. The results also support the conceptualization of cognitive responses as mediators of the impact of humorous advertisements on brand attitude.

Humor in Advertising: The Moderating Role of Prior Brand Evaluation

A consumer's prior evaluation of an advertised brand is hypothesized to moderate the effectiveness of humor in advertising. Further, cognitive responses are hypothesized as mediators of the impact of humorous ads on brand attitude. The results support the hypothesized moderator role of prior brand evaluation: when prior evaluation of the advertised brand is positive, a humorous ad is more effective than its nonhumorous counterpart in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior. When consumers have a negative prior attitude, the opposite is true: a humorous ad is less effective in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior than its nonhumorous counterpart. The results also support the conceptualization of cognitive responses as mediators of the impact of humorous advertisements on brand attitude.

The Effects of Humor on Attention in Magazine Advertising

Abstract It was the objective of this investigation to determine whether humor in advertising heightens attention levels and whether the potential heightening of attention is moderated by audience confounds. The study utilized Starch readership scores obtained for humorous liquor ads which appeared in magazine issues surveyed by Starch from 1976–1979. The results indicate that humorous ads tended to out perform magazine ad norms and that these effects are moderated by gender and racial audience composition differences.