Good Humor, Bad Ad...

(Originally Published December 2004)

This Christmas season, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" celebrated its 41st anniversary. I taped it for my 5-year-old son PJ. He's watched it again and again until well past New Year's Day. I've watched segments with him. We've even memorized some catch phrases (like, "Herbie! Why weren't you at Elf Practice?!").

There's a funny commercial on the tape with a group of kids dressed like grown-ups at a fashion photo shoot -- until they hear the bell of a Good Humor truck and revert to children running off. Every little nuance makes me smile from the moody model to the artsy photographer. But one thing doesn't make me smile: I remember the commercial but I don't remember the advertiser. And I've seen it several times.

Unless the ad is for Good Humor, someone is wasting a lot of money.

Used well, humor is a powerful tool in persuasion. Used poorly, it can hinder your message more than help it.

I have nothing against humor. I use humor often in client ads.

The key to using humor well is making your product or service an integral part of the humor. It shouldn't be just an attention-getting device, but the humor and selling message should be woven inseparably together. Use it to illustrate a competing products flaw or one of your key benefits. Try to make your product the "hero",

Use humor as you might salt and pepper -- sparingly to enhance the experience, not to overwhelm it.

- Phil Sasso