Just Make Me Laugh Ad Boy

I used to think that radio ads with comedy -- were great ads.

I felt that way before I went to college to study Radio, and when I left I was absolutely sure of it.  It seems to me those were the ads we studied, and the ones that when written by us, always garnered the most praise from our instructors.  Now I’m not saying that’s what they taught me – I expect that I heard what I wanted to hear – and I wanted to hear that ads with outrageous comedy were the way to go. 

So when I got my first writing job, my goal was to write stupendous comedy ads.  Sure I had to do my best to write “great” ads for a lot of “sale” copy ads – and straight forward event ads, but every now and then I was able to write some ads that I was certain were comedy gold!  And that’s where my pride of accomplishment lay.  I saved every one of them that made it air – convinced that one day they would be my key to success, fame and fortune.

Of course these days I would have to admit that the ads of my first few years, were not going to deliver me to any promised land.  For the most part they were laced with naivete and poor structure.  To my defence, I was really raw.  And I did not know any better.  Besides I seemed to get compliments when my ads were funny.

However like my ability to write ads has improved over the years, my aptitude to discern what constitutes a good, effective ad has also sharpened.  And these days I play a lot less with comedy in my ads.  You see I’ve discovered what people like Roy Williams said about comedy is true – it really is nytro glycerin.

It can easily blow up in your face if it’s not handled with extreme care. 

Entertaining (comic) ads can work, if there’s a direct connection between entertainment and the one thought you’re trying to plant in the minds of shoppers. In far too many ads the entertainment is not relevant to the advertising message.

Chuck McKay (http://fishingforcustomers.com/)

Not only is that point true – but everyone has a different sense of humour, and what you find funny, may not be funny to someone else.  But the main reason that humour fails to work most often in radio ads is simple – as stated by Chuck McKay -- the comedy has little or nothing to do with the main point of the ad.  It’s humour for humour’s sake. 

A lot of times it seems that the joke is written first, and then the idea the marketer wants to get across is slipped into the middle of the joke/scenario because they had to do it.  And when the ad is done, you’ve found the ad very funny, but for some reason you can’t remember who it was for – or what point they were trying to make. It’s actually interesting to hear people talk about the ads they really love and discover just how often people can not remember the name of the client who paid for the ad!

I’ve gotta tell you, if it was my money on the line – I’d want to be extra sure they remembered who picked up the tab and why I bought the ads in the first place – a whole lot more than they remembered the joke! 

So my basic advice to you as a young writer or an inexperienced radio advertiser would be to stay as far away from comedy in your ads as possible.  I’d urge you to spend a greater amount of your time trying to find that thing that you do that solves a problem everyone listening to your ads has. 

They (the listeners) may love your comedy ad – but if they don’t buy your product and help to keep the doors to your business open, then really what was the point.  Unless of course you just wanted to add a little comedy to the lives of those around you, and you don’t care if anyone knows you were the one who paid for it.  

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bispham2/354689364/">JohnBurke</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>