Humour in Advertising

Humour in Advertising and Marketing

What works, and WHY

We’re pulling together insights examining what kind of comedy works in marketing, advertising and branded content – focusing on a new industry each week. If you’ve got a great example of humour that successfully sells, and you’d like us to feature it – get in touch. 

(p.s.) Thinking about hiring a Comedy Writer? Don’t! Hire a whole hive-mind instead.

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Dave Harland – Copywriting vs. AI

Why we love it: Copywriter Dave Harland loves poking fun at the self-proclaimed thought leaders and trend-hoppers of LinkedIn. And his audience loves him for doing it. This carousel post is a solid satire of the unfortunately still current trend of posting AI tips. Not only is it entertaining, it also positions AI writing tools (and those who espouse their benefits) as laughably inferior to Dave’s own services. What you can learn from it: Consider the alternatives to your product/ service – what could your audience use, buy or do instead of coming to you? Now – how can you satirise those alternatives? Spoof product gags (like the 10 that Dave presents here) are a great option – but you can also do it through memes, dictionary definition gags and more. Look to BAM Monthly for readymade templates and inspiration.

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crocs – the types of dad’s who wear crocs

Why we love it: Posted on Father’s Day, this has clear topical appeal. And while it’s not really a joke – thanks to the lo-fi meme aesthetic and the list of relatable references (i.e. Dad archetypes that the audience either are, or will recognise from their own father / fathers they know / pop culture), it feels like one. What it is, in fact, is a smart way to shift the Limiting Belief, “Crocs are only worn by a certain type of person – and that’s not me”, instead demonstrating to their audience that “Crocs are for all kinds of people – including you”. What you can learn from it: Memes and other entertaining posts have huge potential to begin shifting the Limiting Beliefs that may be preventing your audience from buying from you. There are limitless ways to do this – but why not start by shameless stealing this one? ANY brand can pull off a “Types of X who Y” post – where X is a subset of your audience and Y is a behaviour you’d like to encourage. Plus, having honed your comedy chops with BAM Monthly, yours will be much funnier than the Crocs example.

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icelandfoods – Keeping It Real with Iceland

Why we love it: The execution here isn’t 100% (our joke writers would have a thing or three to say about the flagrant disregard for comedic rhythm). However, in this comparison gag, Iceland manages to poke fun at rival supermarkets and those who shop at them in a brand-safe way. In doing so, they not only position themselves as the go – to supermarket for shoppers who want to “keep it real” (not to mention save money versus buying a “grazing board”); they also trigger the Share and Declare effect, with commenters happy to have an opportunity to identify themselves as members of the Iceland Mums in – group. (Quick note for those outside the UK: the emphasis on “mums” in the post is a reference to Iceland’s slogan, “That’s why mums go to Iceland.” But we agree, it’s not very 2023…) What you can learn from it: Whatever your niche, we guarantee there are multiple out – groups to your audience’s in-group. (For example, are your audience connoisseurs of fine coffee? Out-groups would include tea drinkers, and coffee drinkers who are happy with instant.) Brands Against Mundanity Monthly templates guide you through the process of crafting jokes that poke fun at outgroup behaviour, even if you’re not a household name with rival brands that you can namecheck in your content.

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Ryanair – From Ariel to Air Travel

Why we love it: In contrast to the other meme from RyanAir we’ve looked at in this issue, this one capitalises on a trending topic (the Little Mermaid remake, and the negative audience response to CGI Flounder). What you can learn from it: The “before X / after X” meme format is an easy and versatile one that any brand can use – either to entertain your audience by highlighting a Relatable Truth (as in the example), to subtly shift an audience belief and start moving them further along the buyer’s journey, or to directly showcase the positive impact of using your product/service. Just make sure you’re clear on which of those three objectives you’re trying to achieve, and bear it in mind as you create your meme. (Whether or not you do so via the medium of cartoon fish is entirely up to you.)

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mountaindew – When Stock Photos Steal the Show

Why we love it: Stock photos, paired with a brand-safe Relatable Truth, combined with a dash of topicality? That’s kinda our whole thing here at White Label Comedy (at least, it’s one of our whole things). This carousel from Mountain Dew is more meta than most brand’s memes – demonstrating that they’ve identified their audience’s preferred style of comedy and are happy to lean into it, hard. What you can learn from it: Adobe Stock and the other sites are full of evocative, topical images for every conceivable occasion – and thanks to Brands Against Mundanity Monthly, you’ve already got stacks of creative ways to use them in relatable memes. While it’s tempting to try and stretch out your content by posting individual memes, consider grouping them into carousel posts on a given theme. The interactivity (i.e. swiping through) increases user dwell time, which tells the Instagram algorithm that your content is worth showing to more people.

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Corporate Rebels – Flipping the hiring game

Why we love it: Yes, LinkedIn is a ‘professional’ environment. No, content posted there doesn’t need to be sterile and grammatically flawless. Quite the opposite – when everyone else is posting identikit yawn fodder, showing even a little personality goes a long way. Here, Corporate Rebels have borrowed a pre-existing tweet that aligns with their brand messaging, succinctly sums up a Relatable Truth they know will resonate with their audience, and just so happens to be written in an informal style that goes against the stuffy LinkedIn grain. What you can learn from it: If you’re struggling to generate enough personality packed content for yourself*, consider borrowing jokes and brand-safe relatable observations from other creators (with permission and/or giving credit, of course). *Although you’re highly unlikely to ever feel stumped when you’ve got Brand Against Mundanity Monthly in your back pocket.

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Doritos – The Sizzle of Summer

Why we love it: Posted on the official first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere – and during a heatwave in the UK – this couldn’t have been better timed. Combine that topicality with a highly audience specific Relatable Truth, and Doritos have a scorcher of a post. What you can learn from it: As you can see from the comments, this isn’t just wishful thinking from the Doritos team – enjoying a Doritos sandwich in the summer is an experience that their audience genuinely relates to. But before going ahead with your own version of this, consider your products/services. Are there any positive experiences associated with using them that would make thousands of people say “OMFG that’s so me”? If you’re not already a household name like Doritos, the honest answer might be “no.” And that’s okay. Instead, focus your comedy content on Relatable Truths that are a little broader/adjacent to your offering (i.e. about your niche and the wider world of your audience). That way, you’ll get much more engagement – and when you do post about your offering directly, more potential customers will see it.

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Ryanair – Embracing the Solo Throne

Why we love it: The RyanAir team know that memes highlighting their audience’s Relatable Truths around holidays and flying (in this case an unexpected Small Joy) will always resonate with their audience more strongly than attempts to directly showcase the specific benefits of their offering in meme form (e.g. “When you realise you can fly to Majorca for less than £20”). And of course, by reminding the audience of the Small Joys they may have experienced while flying in the past, they subtly stoke desire for the product anyway. What you can learn from it: When you’re picking an image for a relatable meme like this, the most important consideration is not whether it’s trending or uber-topical, a more evergreen pop culture reference (like this, from Amazon show The Boys), a stock image, or even your own photo… No, the most important thing is that the image is emotive and clear. You want scrollers to be able to comprehend the meaning of the image in an instant, or the joke you’ve attached it to won’t land smoothly or on time (insert your own RyanAir joke here).

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Greggs – Apple Vision Pro

Why we love it: What does the announcement of Apple Vision Pro – an upcoming ‘mixed reality headset’ – have to do with Greggs’ baked goods? Absolutely nothing – but it had almost all of Twitter talking, and any good social media manager would want a slice of that action. This silly Photoshop inspired by Apple’s original tweet (“things you love in ways never before possible”) makes an instant visual impression – and reflects Greggs’ audience’s Relatable Truths around loving sausage rolls (and perhaps also wishing they were 1000x bigger). What you can learn from it: What does the announcement of Apple Vision Pro – an upcoming ‘mixed reality headset’ – have to do with Greggs’ baked goods? Absolutely nothing – but it had almost all of Twitter talking, and any good social media manager would want a slice of that action. This silly Photoshop inspired by Apple’s original tweet (“things you love in ways never before possible”) makes an instant visual impression – and reflects Greggs’ audience’s Relatable Truths around loving sausage rolls (and perhaps also wishing they were 1000x bigger).

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Yorkshire Tea – Biscuits Tier

Why we love it: If there are two things that are sure to provoke engagement, it’s entertainment… And controversy. Here, Yorkshire Tea combines the two – taking a popular meme format, making it relevant to the world of their audience (who are all about tea, biscuits and cosy, rural British life) and encouraging “arguments” in the comments. Of course, we’re hardly talking politics or religion here – so nobody is going to genuinely argue or take offence – but biscuits ARE a subject that Yorkshire Tea’s audience has strong opinions on (as shown by the comments) making it the perfect starting point for relatable content What you can learn from it: See how Yorkshire Tea followed up on the original post? Once you’ve gone to the effort of creating engagement driving content – especially a gamified format like this – it would be a wasted opportunity to simply post and walk away. Get the ball rolling by ‘playing’ the game yourself in the comment section, and reward commenters’ attention by responding playfully. In turn, the algorithm will reward you with exponentially growing reach.

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innocent – Productivity Graph

Why we love it: Innocent Smoothies takes a set of relatable truths based around the realities of work right before a bank holiday – and turns them into a gag-packed timeline that stretches across a carousel. What you can learn from it: Relatable truths don’t always exist in isolation – often, they come in “sets” organised around specific moments, tasks or topics. Playing around with posts that cover an entire set gives you more opportunities to make your audience laugh (and the additional “dwell time” as they scroll through the slides in a carousel post is great for fuelling the algorithm too).

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PC Game Pass – Extra mouse buttons

Why we love it: Xbox Game Pass pretends to have added relatable desires as additional functions that can be triggered by this mouse. Three of the desires are genuinely relatable, while the fourth isn’t relatable, but is deliciously surreal (which makes it the perfect ending to the list). What you can learn from it: The positive relatable truths (desires, small joys, daily delights) can often be harder to make jokes about – because those jokes are almost always less funny than ones based on the negative relatable truths (fears and pains). But a post that assigns fun, funny functionality to an existing well-known product is a great opportunity to prove that rule of thumb wrong.

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