Amusement
Ads and videos written to this emotion: 545. 451 make the Say move, 47 make the Avoid mistake.
What it is
Light, playful pleasure when something strikes you as funny, often because it doesn't quite fit. What does not fit is a little wrong or unexpected, but harmless.
Where it shows up
Sketch ads, wordplay, a cartoon mascot, a jingle that teases the category's own habits.
Say
Build the joke on the product's point, so the laugh lands on the problem it fixes or the thing it does, and the brand arrives with the punchline. One joke carries one point: state the price, the terms and anything that needs trust plainly, outside the joke.
A strong joke unrelated to an ad's claims pushed the claims out of memory, and tying the same joke to the claims brought them back (Krishnan and Chakravarti 2003, two lab experiments). Across 89 studies humour's effect on persuasion was small, and humour tied to the message worked better with people who cared about the topic (Walter and colleagues 2018, studies from several fields, not only ads).
Avoid
A joke that works without the product: people remember the joke and forget whose ad it was. And a laugh at someone's expense: a group (women, a region, an accent, a trade), a named rival, or the viewer. It reads as an insult, even to viewers who are not the target, and the brand carries it.
Students shown stills from 15 funny and 15 plain real TV ads, the jokes unrelated to the products, recalled more of the funny ads, 67% against 53%, but of the ads they recalled, named the product less often for the funny ones, 77% against 92% (Hansen and colleagues 2009, 60 students). Limit: small Dutch samples, though a controlled follow-up with 31 people found the same drop in brand-name recall.
An insurance ad reading "Everyone drives like a woman sometimes" and one reading "Everyone drives like an idiot sometimes" were both rated funnier than a plain ad, but only the second raised liking for the brand, and the first drew more offence (Warren and McGraw 2016, 71 men on a US online panel). Limit: one made-up print ad.
Sources
- Krishnan and Chakravarti (2003). Journal of Consumer Psychology 13(3).
- Walter, Cody, Xu and Murphy (2018). Human Communication Research 44(4).
- Hansen, Strick, van Baaren, Hooghuis and Wigboldus (2009). Journal of Consumer Behaviour 8(2 and 3).
- Warren and McGraw (2016). Journal of Marketing Behavior 2(1).
Doing it right
Ads that make the Say move.
Almarai: the milk emoji we have isn't the milk we drink
Setting a generic milk glass, the emoji we have, beside an Almarai bottle drawn as the emoji we want makes a joke that only works with the product: milk means Almarai.
A gentleman at his telescope takes the mantle's glow on the hill for Halley's Comet, and the punchline, 'That's a Voelker mantle you're looking at', lands the brand on its brightness.
Samir magazine joke booklet special issue ad, al-Kawakib 1969
Cartoon figures flipped upside down with laughter act out what the joke booklet does, and the price sits plainly outside the gag: 'the issue + the laughs, only 30 milliemes'.
The teller's-cage drawing beside piles of coins puns on the title Help Your-self, and the seats, 25, 55 and 75 cents tax included, sit plainly outside the joke.
Mobiloil motor oil ad, al-Musawwar 1941
The overheated car drawn as a panting, steaming horse fanned by a smiling oil drop puts the joke on the exact problem the oil fixes, and the black bar closes it on Mobil.
Paul Vulpius' "Help Yourself" play poster
HELP YOURSELF set over a spilling money bag makes the pun the comedy's own premise, and the 55 and 35 cent prices sit boxed and plain at the bottom left.
Chase and Sanborn instant coffee ad, Bint al-Nil 1956
The tin itself, in bobble hat and scarf, holds a thermometer and a steaming cup, so the joke acts out 'fight the winter cold' while the Chase and Sanborn label stays readable.
Popular Price Theatre poster, The Dictator
THE DICTATOR flies on a banner over a cartoon strongman drawn to fit no one leader, A FARCE beneath turns menace into the play's joke, and 55 and 25 cent prices follow.
Coca-Cola soft drink ad, Bint al-Nil 1951
The joke lands on the product: in a story every child knows, Aladdin skips the gold and jewels and asks the genie for an ice-cold Coca-Cola, with the brand badge closing the strip.
Popular Priced Theatre farce poster, Paul Vulpius
A man hushing the viewer with one finger while clutching cash makes the audience complicit in the swindle the farce is about, and the 25 and 55 cent prices sit on the foot bar.
Shell motor oil ad, The Sphinx 1933
The joke thanks those who refill Shell cans with cheaper oil for a 'touching' compliment, and the punchline is the product's point: Shell pumps and packages are sealed, so the seal proves the oil.
South Side High School senior class play poster, It Never Rains
The title IT NEVER RAINS sits inside a raincloud pouring on a fleeing couple, so the joke is the comedy's own premise, and price and box office hours sit apart in the purple block.
Etisalat Ad - The Power of Attorney - Mobile Internet
Shady's mother ending his network for him like a broken engagement, saying he is asleep while he stands beside her, is a joke about switching, and the price follows plainly: a quarter pound per MB.
تطبيق التعاونية #ميزته_بكل_وقت
The joke is built on the product's point: each comic panic is answered by a real app service, and the laugh lands on a fictional worrier, not on a group or the viewer.
The comedy runs on the team's absurd rise and its last-second loss to the clock, which is the product's point, and Mobily arrives with the punchline about extended validity.
إعلان إي آند صيف 2026 - مع إي آند مالكش حجة - دينا الشربيني وهشام ماجد
The joke is the fake bad-signal dodge, can you hear me, collapsing at a crowded party, on a boat and in a lift, so the laugh lands exactly on e& 5G coverage: مالكش حجة.
كويك نت.. مسلسلاتك تلحقك #نت_يلحقك
The joke is the product's point: series heroes physically follow her out of the screen, and the line 'مسلسلاتك تلحقك' lands as the punchline with the brand.
جهاز MacBook Air مُصمم لتنجز كل مهامك بشحنة واحدة
The laugh lands on the product's point: the father's evidence of idleness, a charger left in the living room all day, is really the battery claim, and the brand arrives with the punchline.
Doing it wrong
Ads that make the Avoid mistake.
Racist Pears' Soap advertisement, 1901
The dialect caption jokes that Pears will wash a Black child's skin white as his mother hauls him screaming to the tub, so the laugh is aimed at a group of people.
Adams chewing gum ad, The Sphinx 1920
The height of fame pun rides on a biplane overhead and says nothing about the gum, so the joke would suit any brand; the product point, good for the children too, waits in the subline.
The joke is two cats nose to nose across a potted tree, a standoff that needs no magazine; Harper's appears only as the name walled off in its own block above.
A deadpan woman holding up two dangling cats is a joke that needs no magazine; Harper's is only the name the black cat turns toward.
Swift Specific Co. "The Georgia Watermelon" booklet
The comic Uncle Balaam story, a racist caricature of Black Southern speech, gets its laugh at a group's expense before ending on three crooked S's scratched in the sand.
Are You a Bromide? book jacket
The laugh lands on blurbs in general, Miss Belinda Blurb mid-shout and a 350-copy target, a joke that would work on any book's jacket and tells the reader nothing about this one.
Arrow Shirts "I always say nice things" ad, art by Coby Whitmore
The laugh rests on the wife as a wheedling spender: the price tag on her new hat reveals her compliment on his Arrow shirts as a ploy.
Collier's poster, November 14, 1903
The gag of a ticket speculator standing on the BEWARE notice that condemns him works with no help from Collier's, so readers keep the joke while the magazine is only the masthead above it.
A golfer and a ploughman sharing one April field, one for sport and one for a living, is the joke, and it works without the magazine, which is never shown.
Harper's Weekly Christmas poster, 1898
Three bears marching as waiters with the Christmas courses would suit any holiday card: the joke says nothing about the magazine, which is left to the masthead and the 25-cent price line.
Diamond Dyes 'Live and dye happy' trade card
The laugh is a polygamy gag at Utah's expense, a boy heading there hand in hand with two girls, and the pun rests on the category word dye, not on Diamond.
Alex M. Hays & Co. holiday novelties trade card, no. 1
The gag of three little Pierrots singing while their music master clutches his ear works with no product in it; only the shop's name sits above, and no novelty is named.
رمضان مع طلبات من غير فلتر - كرسي الإعتراف
The confessions about fasting and family would be just as funny without talabat, which appears only as a corner logo and the sign-off, so viewers may keep the joke and lose the brand.
مبارك عليكم الشهر الفضيل حلو الواحد يكون على طبيعته بس احترام المشاعر أهم. #عزز_ذكائك_الاجتماعي
The laugh comes from a recognisable family squabble over taste, but the joke and its moral need nothing from the bank, so viewers can keep the lesson and lose the brand.
مبارك عليكم الشهر الفضيل حلو الواحد يكون على طبيعته بس احترام المشاعر أهم. #عزز_ذكائك_الاجتماعي
The laugh lands on a familiar blunt aunt, a family type rather than the viewer, but the joke works with no bank in it, so the moral can travel without the brand.
Let's change the viewing experience ⚽
Salah wheeling away the lucky grandmother and the waiter botching orders on purpose make a joke about fan superstition that needs no Vodafone at all; no product or network role appears.
The Wise Shopper المتسوّق الواعي
The joke, a grandmother turned TikTok influencer, works without the credit card or its points, which the film itself does not mention, so viewers may keep the laugh and lose the product.
عرض السنة دي مش عادي مع اتصالات
Helmy's refrain عادي over a recipe iftar, a cancelled outing and a family video call carries the laugh; Etisalat appears only in the title's unnamed offer, so the joke stands alone.
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