Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Oklahoma professor's books explains ad humor
By William Prescott
Oklahoma Daily (U. Oklahoma)
08/27/2007

(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. — A University of Oklahoma professor knows the answer to a $60 billion advertising secret.

Advertisers spend that sum every year because they believe laughter opens our minds and our wallets, said Fred Beard, advertising professor.

Beard summarizes the practical science of humor in his book, "Humor in Advertising: Theory, Practice and Wit," which will be published later this month.

Beard wrote that advertising's reliance on humor relies on classical conditioning, a technique Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov made famous when he trained a dog to drool at the sound of a bell.

"When people see a funny ad they enjoy and like, this encourages them to like the brand being advertised," Beard wrote in his book. "This brand liking encourages them to think, 'The next time I need one of those, I'm going to buy that brand.'"

Advertisers understand classical conditioning, or the "affect-transfer hypothesis," but their attempts at harnessing humor's power often fail. Beard's book helps explain why.

Not all types of humor appeal to everyone. Since the 1980s, advertisers have relied on increasingly "aggressive arousal-safety humor," which gets laughs by "the violation of social standards, conventions, norms, and taboos," according to Beard's book.

Beard said this humor appeals primarily to "youthful, better educated, upscale and male audiences."

"Women, and particularly older generations, often don't get the joke," Beard said.

Beard presented his research to residents of the Rivermont Retirement Community in Norman, Okla., as part of the OU Speakers Series.

"They were a wonderful audience and very engaged," Beard said. "They kept asking questions about what ads are trying to do. They knew it was supposed to be funny, but they didn't get the ... aggressive arousal-safety humor."

Beard said older people love to laugh, but these types of ads will never appeal to them.

"Sixty-, 70-year-olds didn't grow up with 'Animal House,' 'Saturday Night Live,' 'Beavis and Butthead,' 'Ren and Stimpy' or 'The Simpsons,'" Beard said. "So, there's no chance whatsoever they'd enjoy that kind of humor."

Advertisers also worry that humor can distract or overshadow their sales pitch. Beard acknowledges the concern but cites how a popular campaign by Holiday Inn Express overcame it.

These popular ads featured life-threatening situations, such as a laboratory scientist who accidentally shattered a vial containing the Ebola virus on the floor. The main character of each ad always admitted he or she was a phony, but then comforted others by saying, "But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

Beard called the campaign "a favorite."

"The brand is the punchline," he said. "It completely overcomes the problem of overwhelming the message, where people remember the joke but forget the ad — by including the brand in the joke."

Beard began his research five years ago when he redesigned the advanced copy-writing class with another advertising professor, David Tarpenning.

"We started talking about ad humor and how it was usually one of the first things students want to do and [how their work was] usually not very good," Beard said. "One of us posed the question, 'Can you teach someone to be funny?'"

The two professors began their research and developed a model to expose students to all types of humor.

Tarpenning said he applied the model for several years in the class and found it effective.

Students' first attempts at humorous advertising were usually "tasteless" and focused mainly on bathroom humor, a humor style unsuited to selling many consumer goods, Tarpenning said.

Tarpenning said the students' work improved after receiving instruction on different humor types and how to deconstruct and evaluate jokes.

"A joke is where most advertising begins," Tarpenning said. "If you can deconstruct a joke using our model of the types of humor then you should be able to categorize the type of humor you want to create."

Beard's editors hired him to write a textbook, but he wanted to summarize the body of humor research for a broader audience. He said he wanted to reach out to those working in advertising in particular.

"People who produce ads are usually disparaging of scholarly research," Beard said. "My book shows that the professional's and the scholar's insights match up a whole lot more than they thought."

[ Back to Student Voices ]