Using Humor In Advertising

Throughout history humor has been an effective way for advertisers to catch the attention of consumers. Advertising is not only about attracting consumers, but also holding their attention, which is why humor is such a powerful tool used to help advertisers. In the article “5 Guidelines for Using Humor in advertising”, Todd Trautz states “when humor is used correctly, consumers will actually look for and talk about your ads.” For this reason, advertisers use humor in many different types of advertisements in order to gain attention and sell their product.

Irony is one way advertisers use humor to gain consumers and sell more of their product. For example Lay’s potato chips has a commercial where Mr. Potato Head comes in the door after his day at work, and calls for Mrs. Potato Head. He receives no response but hears a loud crunching sound, so he starts searching the house for his wife. He

For example Doritos has a commercial that starts off with a man holding a bag of the chips, while calling his pug in the house from the back yard. He then closes the sliding glass door and says to his girlfriend, “Babe watch this”. He proceeds by pulling out a Dorito and waving it around in front of the glass door, causing the pug to start running towards it; assuming that the dog will end up smacking into the door because it wants the chip. In a twist of events the dog wants the chip so bad that when he hits the door he knocks the whole thing down, smashing the man underneath it. The commercial then ends with the dog eating the bag of chips and the man stuck under the door incoherently saying, “Those are my Doritos”. This commercial is funny because we all know there is no way a tiny pug could take down a door, even if it does want a chip that bad. Also consumers find the commercial funny because the man who was teasing the dog ends up getting knocked down and get his Doritos taken