Creating funny ads is simpler than you might think. The secret is understanding the ten humor archetypes that are the foundation of humor ads.
In this three-minute emotional marketing lesson video, emotional marketing speaker Graeme Newell shows how to create laughs using the absurd solution technique. Learn how to use this simple formula to entertain and move your customers to a deeper connection with your brand.
We have all seen the funniest commercials and wondered how we can use that same advertising humor in our humorous advertisements to make great humor commercials. Today, I’m going to tell you how you can use emotional branding and advertising humor to make the funniest commercials you can.
Emotional Branding and Humor
To a lot of advertising copy writers, humor in advertising is a far-off fantasy that is for “funny people,” and not them. Emotional branding is a way of looking at the funniest commercials around and discovering what the key, underlying concepts are of the humor commercials. In truth, the funniest commercials aren’t just born out of a flash of advertising humor inspiration – they are carefully crafted with key concepts of emotional branding in mind.
How the Funniest Commercials do it
The funniest commercials around follow set rules that govern humor. Humor commercials use these ‘creative vehicles’ to deliver a strong message while still giving the audience the humor in advertising they desire. In this particular video, I’m going to tell you about one of the most powerful emotional branding tools humorous advertisements use – the absurd next step.
Humor in Advertising Using Absurd Next Step
The absurd next step is an emotional branding tool used in the funniest commercials to create great advertising humor. It depicts a relatively normal situation, and then absolute insanity is introduced into the humor commercials, and pure chaos ensues. This formula has been followed by humorous advertisements all over the world to great effect. All you have to do is to follow the emotional branding steps of humor in advertising and you too can create great humor commercials.
Humorous Advertisements Using Positive and Negative Absurd Next Step
Within the emotional branding humor archetype of absurd next step are two advertising humor variations. You can go either positive with your humor commercials, or you can go negative with your humorous advertisements. While the archetype stays the same – it’s the same general concept – the method of delivering the concept differs between various humor commercials. With this an advertising copy writer has more tools at her disposal when writing humor commercials.
Positive Absurd Next Step in Advertising Humor
When using absurd next step in a positive manner in humorous advertisements, you have a set of steps you must follow. The emotional branding humor archetype here is to establish a normal situation at the beginning of the humor commercials, introduce the product, and then show the situation spiraling totally out of control. This would be like the funniest commercials that show a man using the product and then deciding that he can suddenly perform brain surgery, or a humorous advertisement showing a deal so good that a woman needs a 16-wheeler to haul out everything she bought.
Negative Absurd Next Step in Humor Commercials
The other way to use the emotional branding comedy archetype of absurd next step is to flip it on its head and deny a need. This type of advertising humor shows the horrible consequences of what happens when the product causes things to spiral out of control. The humor in advertising used here is to deny a need and appeal to the dark side of the audience. We all like laughing at the misfortune of others in advertising humor, and your customers are no different. Show a man getting pummeled by a giant rat when he tries to catch one using cheesy snacks, or how eating beef jerky will make you so bold that you mess with Sasquatch (it doesn’t end well).
So, here’s a recap of what we covered today:
• Humor in advertising is as simple as using the emotional branding techniques that other humorous advertisements have been using. Humor commercials don’t just appear out of thin air – they are carefully crafted using techniques that the funniest commercials around have been using.
• Absurd next step is one of these emotional branding humor archetypes that are used in humorous advertisements around the world. The three-step advertising humor formula is as follows: establish a normal situation, introduce the product into the mix, and watch as all hell breaks loose.
• Absurd next step can be used as both positive and negative. The funniest commercials use positive at times, and at other times negative. Both can be used in humor commercials to expand the creative possibilities of advertising copy writers.