The use of humor in various advertisement practices has become common in the marketplace. Nonetheless, studies have not exploited the influence of humor on the consumers fully. Researchers have also established that humor is by no means better than other ads; its effects can be improved with careful consideration of the health of the audience and nature of the humor. The evolutionary functions associated with humor have been discussed in most studies, but media researchers especially advertising researchers have neglected the biological nature and evolution for further explanation of the impacts humor on advertising (Djambaska et al. 14). The paper aims to analyze the current advertising literature and review various revolutionary functions of humor. Even though the use of humor in most advertising practices, the efficacy associated with humor as a device used in communication has remained uncertain. While attempting to delineate some of its impacts, studies have established that humor is very elusive. With such in knowledge, researcher, and advertising copywriters are divided with some praising and other decrying the effectiveness of using humor in the advertisement. The paper stems from such gap to undertake a study on the impacts of humors on advertising based on biology and psychological benefits of laughing perspective.
Historical Background
Humor is a complex topic that most studies have experimented on using advertisement in the previous decades. Based on its nature, humor is multifaceted and influenced by different factors, which makes it critical to impose certain contingencies through the desired goal, the type of humor, placement, medium, and the target audience (Glen and Kyle 29). In most cases, studies have concentrated on the impacts of using humor on advertising to influence consumer behavior and purchase power. The increasing use of humor and unresolved questions involving humor and advertisement effects have drawn the attention of many communication researchers and psychologist. Humor is advertisement is considered a gun in the hand of a child; businesses must know how to use it, or it might blow up on them (Eisend 9). From such statement, it is evident that humor requires thorough analysis to ensure that it meets the needs of the target audience. Early studies revealed that humor is by no means better than other advertising elements; it effects can be improved by considering the objectives carefully. To most advertisers, advertising humor is the ability of the target audience to respond positively when others are portrayed playfully.
Humor and Advertising
Studies have established that more than 30% of the prime-time television advertising are humorous. Other studies have been conducted revealed similar high levels of practicing humor in both television ads and radio. Even though using rumor in advertising is high, its effectiveness as an interaction device has remained doubtful. While trying to describe various impacts associated with humor, it has remained extremely indefinable. Due to such inadequate information, advertising managers and researchers have been honoring and criticizing the significance of humor in advertising. The underlying truth is that humor is one of the difficult themes that has been debated on in different studies for many years. By nature, humor is a diverse concept affected by different factors. The nature of communication goal plays a significant role in ensuring the appropriate use of humor. For humor and attention perspective, most studies have noted that most advertisement practitioners consider humor as the best way to gain the attention of the audience. Humor also has great effect on comprehension. Humorous contents increase the level of comprehension of the advertising.
A careful analysis of most ads reveals that most companies would focus on creating advertisements to make the audience laugh. Moreover, humor has several positive impacts on advertising and increases the level of ad’s appeal to the target audience. Nonetheless, there is a need for careful use of humor on the ads since a simple mistake could turn off the audience and limit the impact of the message contained in the ad. Advertising that makes the audience laugh could create an emotional connection between the consumers and the organization. As a result, the emotional connection makes the message more meaningful and memorable in the mind of the audience, which might assist in paving the way for greater understanding in the future. Humor makes the audience feel that they are being entertained (Swani et al. 317). As an advertising appeal, three factors contribute to the success of humor: watch, laugh, and remember. For services and products advertisements, humor assists in enhancing attention, improving the brand image, increasing brand awareness, high recalling among the target audience, and enhance the mood of the target audience.
Humor and Biology and Physiological Benefits of Laughing
According to Chang and Bandyopadhyay Humor and laughter are increasingly being employed in many therapeutic situations (93). Most studies on the use of therapeutic humor have revealed that humor has the power to motivate and alleviate both stress and pain. In addition, humor assists to enhance one’s sense of wellbeing. The advertising activities use these elements to attract the attention of the audience and ensure that the content of their ads remains relevant. However, with the recent development in research, studies have established that most people use advertisement humor to reduce their stress, enhance their quality of life, and improve their immune functioning (Bennett and Lengacher 62). Laughter occurs naturally in response to humorous stimulus and does not require more time and money for implementation. Different studies have established that laughter is the best medicine and most media marketers use the concept to their advantage to attract more audience. The main aim of most ads is to attract the attention of the audience and increase their knowledge of the existence of a product or service (Eisend 74). Nonetheless, humor has changed the concept of carrying out advertisement as they consider humor to not only carry the laughter elements but also a source of good health. Psychologists have cited that laughter is good for health since its stimulation have great effects on the physical and neurological processes of the brain and body. Moreover, humor assist to relax the whole body, trigger the release of endorphins, and ensure adequate protection of the heart.
There are currently limited studies in the field of humor and laughter; it has become a growing interest among the medical and psychological practitioners due to a wide pool of early studies indicating that laughter plays a significant role in the circulatory system, blood sugar regulations, and immune-system response. In the field of media and advertising, humor is considered to enrich the level of social interactions and relationships in different ways, which in turn contributes to enhanced individual health (Gockel 71). While considered the biological and psychosocial effects associated with humor on advertising, most studies often use the biopsychosocial model of health. The obvious psychological benefit of humor includes the creation of a distance and buffer between the problems of the audience and their emotional response to these challenges. There are many ways in which advertisements affect and shape the lifestyles, attitudes, and culture. As a result, most ads are developed to influence the attitude and lifestyle of the audience. The marketing communication process is based on the source, which encodes critical message through translation of ideas to be communicated into a symbol that consists of words, numbers, and pictures (Djambaska et al. 11). Medical practitioners and psychologists are increasingly encouraging advertisements to integrate the humor concept. Studies have established that children laugh many times in day but adults are more serious. Through advertisement, there is creation of humor, which is critical to enhance emotional health, strengthen relationships, and find happiness. Humorous advertising can change the concept and objective of the marketing strategy. Therefore, the advertisers should be careful when selecting the appeal for the ads.
Besides health and psychosocial effects of advertising humor on the target audience, many scholars have established different theories of humor, which assist in explaining the associated concept, its social functions, and types of humors (Bennett and Lengacher 63). According to the relief theory, humor contributes to laughter which is a homeostatic mechanism used in reducing psychological tension. Relief theory relates to the biological and psychosocial effects of humor. For example, humor facilitates relief of tension associated with fear and stress. Based on the relief theory, laughter and humor assist the target audience in releasing nervous energy and overcoming different socio-cultural inhibitions and revealing the suppressed desires. Superiority theory also plays an important role in humor advertising. The theory traces back to the earlier philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes. According to superiority theory, people laugh about the misfortune of others since these misfortunes assert the superiority of others on the background of shortcomings of others. From the psychological perspective and humor theory, humor has cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, and psycho-physiological dynamics and plays a significant role in producing humorous responses and mental processes. Thus, for most audiences, humor advertising goes beyond attracting their attention. Humor leads to laughter, which is a powerful antidote used to relieve pain and stress (Gockel 69). According to the relief theory, humor lightens burdens, inspires hope, and keeps one focused, alert, and grounded. However, recent studies have revealed that humor assists in releasing anger and with the power to heal the hearts, humor advertising has become important resource used to surmount problems.
Negative Impacts of Humor Advertising
In the recent years, researchers have focused on establishing the significance of humor on the quality of advertisement. However, studies have also revealed the use of novelty and shock while executing advertisements (Swani et al. 311). For example, the strategy is used commonly in American television ads, which involve the integration of aggressive humor. These practices reveal the dramatic change in the way in which humor was employed historically. Men and women respond to humor advertising differently, especially advertisements with violence. For many years, marketers have relied on the power of humor to enhance their competitive advantage and attract more audience. However, the question that has remained unanswered among the researchers is whether the ads that score laughs always translate to love of the brand being advertised (Chang and Bandyopadhyay 69). Humor advertising is effective in improving the attractiveness of the brand but it could also sour the attitude of the consumers towards the brand even if the ads succeed in getting the audience laugh. From such perspective, it is evident that humor ads could diverge from the prevailing view that humors evoke positive emotion, which inevitably changes the brand perception among the target audience.
The major challenge of humor advertising is the benign violation. Studies have established that humor threatens people’s identity and view of important things through violation of the norms: grammatical rules, social convention, and moral standards (Verlegh et al. 5). Thus, marketers need to be careful when designing their humorous ads since attempting humor could be risky since violation of the practices and norms that the target audience value could trigger negative feelings instead of laughs. If the ads are to amuse the audience, then the marketers should develop a benign, which involves ensuring that the ads contents seem right and wrong at the same time. Besides, violation of benign might arose mixed emotions (Eisend 15). Psychological and marketing studies have established that ad developer should think critically regarding the humors which yield mixed reactions: firstly, the negative stimuli are considered to have great impact on the impression formed than the positive stimuli and second, the impression of the target audience on the advertisement influence their overall impression on the brand it promotes. Based on the analysis, provocative claims are derivable: negative feelings might arise from the humor regardless of the extent it amuses the target audience; harmful effects associated with negative feelings and brand attitudes might outweigh the positive effects of amusement (Verlegh et al. 4).
Negative impacts of advertising humor could also occur if the ad overturns popular assumptions. In most cases, the ads aimed for humor are always perceived to be amusing and are less likely to evoke the positive feelings than those that attempt to be creative and persuasive. In fact, such ads elicit negative emotions and result in unfavorable brand attitudes (Verlegh et al. 3). Most ads are developed to arouse positive emotions of the audience. However, some ads often fail to consider the norms, age limits, and demographic patterns of the target audience. In addition, there have been cases in which ads fail to consider the psychological and health impacts of the audience, which in turn leads to worsening of the situation. Brand attitudes depend on the negative emotional impact of the ads rather than the thoughts of the audience on whether the ad is funny or not. Some approaches hurt brand attitudes since they provoke strong negative emotions among the audiences (Chang and Bandyopadhyay 69). However, studies have revealed that the common ads that provoke negative impressions to depict severe conditions rather than mild violations of the acceptable norms and standards; do not motivate and pulls away audience rather than bringing them closer and threaten a given group of people.
Conclusion
For many years, businesses have used advertising humor to enhance their competitive advantage and attracting the target audience. Humor is a form of reward for the audience that listens to the adverts, and in most cases, humorous contents often have persuasive effects. As a result, they create a positive mood and like the brand. The paper analyzed the impact of humor advertising from the biological and psychological benefits of laughter perspective. The study revealed that humor has great impact on health and psychology of the listeners. However, there are counterarguments that humor advertising could also lead to negative impacts, which affect the overall performance of the brand in question.
Works Cited
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