When it comes to advertising, funny matters
When the world's full of doom and gloom on a daily basis, aren't commercial wins more likely to be found in comedy? In the past, advertising was part of the UK's comedy culture and, says Jonny Parker, Joint Chief Creative Officer at VCCP London, that's where its future should be.
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War, Tube strikes, cost of living, broken Britain, global warming, more war, polarisation, inflation, stagnation, Donald Trump. That was the front page of our newspapers this morning.
I remember laughing my arse off in the early years of my career. Comedy was king. Laughs sold shit and won shit.
Pure gloom. Like we need reminding. Turns out we’re all naturally wired to pay more attention to the negative.
We’re addicted to it. The news algorithm knows it. Murdoch knows it. Our industry knows it. It’s probably why juries award such gloomy work year after year. Which then makes us do more gloomy work to win more awards. We’ve weaponised gloom.
Credits
View on- Agency TBWA
- Production Company Spectre
- Director Daniel Kleinman
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Credits
View on- Agency TBWA
- Production Company Spectre
- Director Daniel Kleinman
Explore full credits, grab hi-res stills and more on shots Vault
Credits
powered by- Agency TBWA
- Production Company Spectre
- Director Daniel Kleinman
Above: It used to be that comedy was king, such as Peter Kay taking his mum to a care home to find space for his hobbies.
But it wasn’t always so. I remember laughing my arse off in the early years of my career. Comedy was king. Laughs sold shit and won shit. We all wanted to be funny. Remember Peter Kay telling his mum he was taking her to the old folks home to make way for a snooker table for John Smiths [above]. Or the lumberjack upset about his new boots after lobbing his leg off for Mikes Hard Lemonade. Funny as. Actual laugh out loud funny.
Tango, Supernoodle [below], Old Spice, Dr Pepper, Monkey and Al. This work infiltrated culture. We’d talk about it in pubs and cabs and schools and factory floors. We’d quote it, tried to reenact it. It wasn’t an interruption, it was part of the entertainment. We just need to remind ourselves that comedy can be weaponised too.
It’s time to find our funnybone again. It’s our duty. In a world of doom and gloom, let’s lift the mood.
I’ve recently heard many creatives wanging on about it being our duty to change the world with our creative genius. Come on then, adland. It’s time to find our funnybone again. It’s our duty. In a world of doom and gloom, let’s lift the mood. Less case studies for left handed pickle jars (IFKYK), more skits about reanimated iguanas please.
Coz here’s the thing, comedy can be weaponised too. From a behavioural perspective comedy works in just the same way. Just without the trauma. And it can actually increase our lifespan. Fact.
What’s brown and sticky? A stick.
See I’ve just extended your life by 2 minutes. You're welcome.
Credits
View on- Agency Mother
- Post Production Smoke & Mirrors
- Editor Steve Gandolfi
- Director of Photography Denis Crossan
- Creative Mother
- Director Danny Kleinman
- Producer David Botterell
Explore full credits, grab hi-res stills and more on shots Vault
Credits
powered by- Agency Mother
- Post Production Smoke & Mirrors
- Editor Steve Gandolfi
- Director of Photography Denis Crossan
- Creative Mother
- Director Danny Kleinman
- Producer David Botterell
Above: Comedy work like Supernoodles created imagery and lines that infiltrated culture.
Humour connects in a way few other things do. It’s disarming. It’s emotional. And because it makes you feel something, you remember it.
But... there’s a but.
Making something genuinely funny - especially for a big, broad audience - is bloody hard. The art of making tea shoot out of someone’s nose while also being relevant to the brand and being Clearcast-friendly and inoffensive to anybody and everybody is quite a skill. We should know, we’ve tried and failed many times over.
Let’s be honest, nobody’s paying attention to our ads. That’s why the ones we remember are often the ones that made us laugh.
Remember our ad for a betting company, the one with the Nepalese throat singers? Exactly. It was shit.
Let’s be honest, nobody’s paying attention to our ads. That’s why the ones we remember are often the ones that made us laugh. Humour transforms our ads from an intruder to a VIP at the party.
Yes, funny ads are risky. They’re hard to sell to clients, tricky to test. And yes, they’re harder to make. But if you can make a million people laugh and quote your funniest lines back to you then you’ve made culture. And made the country live a little longer. Well done you.
