Humor in Marketing: The Riches Are in the Glitches

When asked to write a TV commercial for a car, Jeremy Clarkson, the presenter of the car show Top Gear, started the job with a complaint: “It’s a pretty car, but what they’ve done is put the engine from a canal boat in it.”

The Top Gear episode allowed us a sneak peek into the brainstorming session as well, during which advertising experts gave Clarkson suggestions and feedback. One of the ad creatives suggested that, instead of saying that the makers ruined the car by putting a diesel engine in it, the commercial could say: “They’ve taken diesel and made it more exciting.”

Nothing kills a joke more quickly than someone explaining it, but notice how this smart reframe turned the message on its head without changing any of the facts. By changing the perspective, the ad creative rebuilt the sentence in a way that helps buyers self-identify. For instance, people whose first criterion was to get a car with a diesel engine will now know to pay attention to the advertised model—the one that makes diesel exciting.

Creatives aren’t being creative for creativity’s sake. The hope is that the use of humor will help the message travel farther; adding a little wit to a commercial can indeed help people remember the message better, and it can even make them pay attention in the first place.

Clowns in sales

Advertisers weren’t always convinced that humor was the right tool for writing commercials. Claude Hopkins, one of the most influential copywriters of the early 1900s, famously rejected the tactic with the comment: “People do not buy from clowns.”

A lot has changed in the century since Hopkins made that statement, and the real answer today is: It depends. Some product categories certainly benefit more from humor than others, and the level of success will vary, depending on where adverts end up. The media landscape has changed quite a bit since the 1920s, and the main concern today is breaking through the noise. Wit is an appealing strategy simply because a fun campaign is more likely to draw engagement and get people to share the ad within their networks.

Research also supports the idea that people are more likely to remember information associated with positive emotions. Humor activates both the cognitive and the emotional centers of the brain, leading to deeper processing and better memory retention. This dual activation occurs because humor requires the integration of various brain regions. Studies have shown that when we find something funny, it stimulates the brain’s reward system, encouraging long-term memory and making even such gruesome tasks as learning in a classroom more enjoyable.

Public speakers know that a well-timed joke or funny anecdote makes the audience more receptive. When people laugh, they are more focused and engaged. This heightened state of attention creates a sense of connection between the speaker and the audience; it’s no wonder that people who are good at making others laugh have an easier time attracting romantic partners, making favorable impressions, and navigating tricky social or business interactions.

Why is humor funny?

“Laughter is the quintessential human social signal. Laughter is about relationships,” writes Dr. Robert Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, in his book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. “Although we probably laugh or smile more when we are happy than sad, these acts are performed primarily in response to face-to-face encounters with others, our audience.”

People across cultures may speak very different languages, but everybody laughs more or less the same way. Babies laugh well before they talk; infants learn to smile when they are only a few weeks old and learn to respond with laughter as early as 3 months.

Laughter isn’t exclusive to humans either: Apes, dogs, and (arguably) even rats do it. Evidence suggests that laughter is a primitive form of communication, and as such, it may signal that a potential threat is not a concern, like when a baby plays peek-a-boo and learns that the caregiver will only disappear for a brief moment.

Many evolutionary adaptations serve multiple purposes, and humor appears to be no exception. As humans developed complex social networks, producing comedy and being able to appreciate others’ jokes became useful tools for building relationships. Comedy is a response to a wide range of minor setbacks, cultural misunderstandings, absurdities, and other “benign violations” that amuse people and make them laugh.

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The Power of Relatability

In marketing, humor not only captures attention but also fosters a sense of relatability and trust between a brand and its audience. According to a study published in Psychological Science by Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren, humor creates a sense of camaraderie and shared understanding, which can be particularly effective in building brand loyalty. Their research may sound familiar: They introduced the “benign violation theory,” which suggests that humor arises when something seems “wrong” but is simultaneously perceived as non-threatening.

Humor that breaks a pattern or introduces a slight incongruity can effectively capture attention and leave a lasting impression. Creatives like to disrupt the viewer’s expectations just enough to create interest and engagement without causing discomfort. For example, Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign used absurd humor to great effect, resulting in a substantial increase in sales and brand recognition.

The simplest way to get someone’s attention is to break a pattern. Or, as people will soon say, “The riches are in the glitches.”