What’s the best thing about Switzerland?
I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.
Humor (even in Dad joke form) is one of the greatest gifts we have. We should embrace it. It connects people. Gets people excited. Helps them like you. All of the things we’re trying to do for our brands.
Humor is how we sort shit out. It’s one of brain’s best tools for making sense of a senseless world. A way to soothe the wounds that life scrapes into us day by day. A good joke (or even a bad one) can help us make sense of absurdity, tragedy and even death. It makes the world a bit more manageable, especially when things feel particularly unmanageable. Maybe humor doesn’t work that way for everyone, but I know damn well it does for a huge chunk of us.
For our clients, we need to push into this uncomfortable territory more often. Not just with humor, but with anything that provokes a visceral reaction. Yes, you will inevitably rub some people the wrong way. But if your message is true (and it should always be true), it will resonate for many.
Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMnMgX7GiOA
When I first saw that spot I couldn’t laugh at it, because I’m a huge animal lover (poor Snuffy!). But I get that a lot of people found it hilarious. And I genuinely don’t care that Discovery chose to run a joke that didn’t connect with me. In fact, I respect them for it. They could have watered it down until it said nothing, but they chose to keep it pure.
It’s been 8 years since that spot originally ran. And I still remember it, fondly, despite all of my animal loving squishiness. Most ads are barely remembered after 8 seconds. And when you think about all the work that goes into to creating the work we do, that’s not very funny at all.
