We’ve lost our sense of humour. 

As an industry.

Brands today are overwhelmingly… sincere. Keen to sound important, afraid to be lighthearted. Stuck in the fallacy that to do seriously well you have to take yourself seriously. That to be seen as a purposeful brand your tone should sound suitably “grown-up”.

As people.

We take ourselves and our jobs incredibly seriously. Just look at some of the puffed-up language we use on a daily basis:

“War rooms”

“Should we do a post mortem on this?”

“Building the plane while we fly it”

“Pioneers”

“We are going to own Joy”

“We are fundamentally altering the course of…”

“Creators and guardians of culture”

Maybe even as a nation. 

Our sense of humour is our proudest national characteristic. And whichever side of the culture wars you fight for (or if you’re a conscientious objector), the fact is that the majority of us worry that we’re losing it. Over half of Brits [Ipsos] believe this, the audience a lot of us sell to every day.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not calling for a return to the smoky, dodgy ad world of decades gone by. I’d probably be jobless.

But what if we could learn something from the past? People actually liked ads then. Over the last 20 years alone, public attitudes towards advertising have worsened significantly. Almost  twice as many people today find TV ads annoying. 

So buckle up. Or, actually, don’t. Because we’re taking a trip back to the 80s. The decade when ads were funny and BBH was born.

The 80s 

Ads in the 80s were funnier. In fact, they were more than twice as likely to be comedic [Kantar].

They allowed brands to wriggle into popular culture. TV was king and there were only a few channels, so everyone would see them. Cheesy jingles are practically a signifier of the era… second only to leg warmers, video cassettes and massive hair. 

Here are a few of BBH’s greatest hits from the 80s.

It’s no wonder these ads stood the test of time. “The humour effect” [WARC] describes how funny material is more memorable than unfunny material. Why? Because we pay more attention to funny things. And this means we remember them. 

But the power of humour doesn’t stop there. Humour is one of the few tools brands have to “connect” with people… in a way they’re actually interested in. Humour is proven to be the most powerful creative enhancer of receptivity [Kantar AdReaction], and allows us to add interest to the products and brands we’re selling that, for the most part, people don’t care about. 

“We are hardwired to respond to humour, and that provides a bigger opportunity for brands to stand out and build preference: the ultimate goal of branding. Humour doesn’t just help a brand stand out, it gets you in the gut. Emotions are the fastest way to deepen memory structures that guide how we make purchasing decisions through triggering distinctive memory associations.” [Kantar]

Back to the future 

It’s 2022. COVID put life on pause for two years. And now we’re dealing with the psychological and economic effects of lockdown. There’s a cost of living crisis. There’s a war. In short, life can feel pretty serious. 

We’ve always used comedy to get us through bleakness. When you can laugh at something, somehow it loses some of its power. Maybe that’s why comedy shows boomed during the first few weeks of lockdown [Ipsos Mori]. Or why teens (in all their turmoil) are drawn to surreal humour… whether it be TikTok irreverence or The Goonies.

But ads aren’t serving up much of that light relief today. Orlando Wood’s Lemon explores how advertising has ‘turned the brain sour’; how the industry has seen a shift over time from humour, seduction and humanity to solemnity, intrusiveness and directness. And as a result has lost its ability to make people feel and its power to persuade. 

When brands do get emotional today, they’re often painfully sincere. They won’t stop telling us to be the best version of ourselves. Or find our passion. Or achieve our dreams. Like... we’re trying!

Here are three ways we can learn from the 80s to revive the ad industry’s sense of humour.

Comedy doesn’t have to bully 

“Every joke has a victim” - Rowan Atkinson

Every joke may indeed have a victim. But the question is who, and whether you’re laughing at or with them. The type of comedy that offends is lazy comedy… comedy that leans on stereotypes, that laughs at the powerless or that resorts to crudeness. The best 80s ads, including those we just watched, use human insight to find clean, clever humour that does not bully.

Comedy can be purposeful  

“Fools speak truth to power” - William Shakespeare

Many of today’s marketers want to build purposeful brands. 

So it’s critical to understand that purpose and humour are not mutually exclusive; funny doesn’t have to mean irreverent or silly, and brands don’t need to be serious in tone to carry a serious message. 

Take this BT advert about the importance of talking with a loved one:

Comedy needs bravery 

Comedy will always be risky. Your joke could just not land. 

And despite the distance that separates the ad world today from the ad world of the 80s... 

Process. Testing. Stakeholders. Money. Trust. Global comms…

The highest hurdle is the same as it always has been. Comedy requires clients to take a leap of faith, and doing that takes bare-naked bravery.

Conclusion 

If we can bring mullets back from the dead, we can definitely make ads funny again. 

It starts with agency culture (Robert Mayhew’s agency themed TikToks or Jim Carroll’s blog posts are a good place to start), and it ends with more effective work. 

“Excessive seriousness can make marketing less effective… We’re at our most creative when we’re in a relaxed, playful mood. There’s a reason we have our best ideas lying in the bath. If we want great creativity, we need to take a light-hearted and playful approach. Technology companies like Google understand this well… but some more traditional marketers seem not to.” [Binet & Field]