Shaw & Todd - Advertising and Marketing Communications

Ok, it’s Friday night, so time for some more levity. Thought I’d revisit my stated intention to share with you some the commercials past and present that I find humorous. The original blog post was a very brief discourse on how difficult it is to pull off humor in advertising, simply because people’s sense of humor really run the gamut. Having been in the situation of trying to pull off funny in light of the many obstacles, I’ve decided to use this blog space to applaud the successful production of humor in advertising.

This installment was one of the somewhat controversial Ameriquest ads from a few years back. Many felt these to be in extremely bad taste, and truthfully I can see how some people would take offense (although these same people should really lighten up a bit). I’m not going to get into whether or not I feel this ad is effective. I just find it funny (and obviously memorable).

Ok, I’ve gotta correct myself. One of those e*trade talking baby commercials I must admit is pretty amusing. It’s the one where the kid discusses the creepyness of clowns. Ok, now I defy someone to find me a funny commercial with a dancing lizard or a wacky monkey.

“We want something funny. Let’s be funny”. Occasionally we get this from a client. Once we probe into why exactly they have declared that they’d like to inject humor into their advertising, and once we agree that the campaign’s goals and objectives do fit with employing humor to deliver the message, then comes the hard and often agonizing part: delivering something that is actually funny. Now don’t get me wrong— we are a fun bunch here at S&T, but developing a campaign that starts off funny and ends up funny can be a herculean task.

The first hurdle (of many) is creating something that appeals to the humor of everyone who touches the campaign. Not easy. For instance: I’m not a fan of talking babies, dancing lizards, or wacky monkeys. Don’t find them funny in the slightest. But saying that, I can get beyond my distaste for such things if the message is clearly delivered. Case in point: the e*trade talking baby commercial. I get it, online trading is so easy with e*trade, a baby can do it. Yuk. But it does make the point; I’ll give it that. And people do seem to love it. Just not my cup of tea (and yes, I do have a baby, but I still find the concept as unfunny as “Weekend at Bernies“).

So what’s funny to me? Does anyone care? Don’t know, but here’s my first installment. It’s an IKEA commercial, directed by Spike Jonez.

In the last few days, a couple people have sent me the link to this video and I’ve noticed it posted on more than one blog. So I figured I’d do my part to spread the virus. It’s a UK TV commercial that’s clever and entertaining enough live on its own as a YouTube post. Goes to show that an old school advertising tactic, if properly executed, can actually be interesting enough for people to want to see and pass along instead of fast forward.