Your Printed Marketing Material Can Be Humorous While Still Being Informational

The use of humor in marketing and adverting is almost as old as advertising itself. The reason for this is very simple: humor helps build a connection between the advertiser and the customer.

Here's something you may have noticed: Con artists have no sense of humor! Someone who is trying to deceive you will often go overboard in projecting an authoritative or serious attitude. On the other hand, humor has always been a sign of friendliness and trust and, if used correctly, is almost always interpreted that way. Projecting a sense of humor through advertising is a way of saying, "We understand each other. We see things the same way."

Obviously there are rules which must be followed in the use of humor in advertising:

1) Humor must be gentle. There's no room for sharp elbows in advertising humor. Biting or cutting humor will go over very badly. The only possible exception to this rule is in those instances where a non-profit is trying to make a point about some form of injustice or abuse.

2) If one pokes fun at anyone, it must be at oneself. One thing that politicians often do in order to make themselves a bit more likable is to poke fun at themselves. Although corporations may not want to make fun of themselves, they sometimes use likable spokespeople who play "characters" - and these characters can perform that function.

3) Women must never be referred to in a demeaning way. This goes without saying. Although it's not a problem to make fun of the classic "hapless male" - lots of ads use that approach - anything that pokes fun of the intelligence or competence of females is often interpreted as a commentary on all females. Women make a high percentage of buying decisions. It makes sense not to go anywhere near this.

4) Disabilities, ethnic, political or religious differences are completely off limits. There are some occasions when political differences can be used in a completely inoffensive way, but even there it's pretty dicey and best left to professionals. It's best to steer completely clear of anything along these lines. When in doubt, think of something else to use.

One way that advertisers deal humorously with certain topics is to use talking animals and conversations between kids. This allows certain things to be said that might be considered "off the wall" or a bit naïve if expressed by adults.

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