The role of humor dates back
to many years when all of us
viewed films of Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy.
These actors and characters with their humorous deeds amused
the audiences. Even our own Hindi and regional movies always had
a comedian who provided a touch of humor to the movie, played a
very important role and gave the audience some fun and joy.
Every Hindi movie had an actor like Mehmood, Jagdeep, Deven Verma
or an Asrani who played a very important role in making the
movie entertaining and thrilling. The same strategy is being used by
many advertisers in India in order to ensure that their
advertisements get noticed, stand out in the
clutter with memorable humor which remains sticky in the viewers
mind. In fact, newspapers like The Times of
India have made the readers smile every morning with the
RK Laxman's cartoon. Even individual personalities or celebrities try
and use humor to position themselves differently in the people's
mind. One such example is our Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
Shri Yadav has used humor cleverly to attract audience. His witty
and funny speeches and replies have positioned him differently
amongst other politicians. So, humor as a tool, is a strong weapon for
many brands to draw the customer's attention.
The word humor in an English dictionary translates to the
quality of being amusing or comic but in advertising it means
serious business. In advertising, humor means much more than making
a bunch of people laugh. Some of the best brands in India have
leveraged humor to such an extent that the viewers eagerly look forward
for innovation in humor each time a new commercial is launched
from those brands. To illustrate, Fevicol has been one of those brands
which has used humor so intelligently and subtly that it remains sticky
in people's mind. However, companies must closely analyze the product
and the product category before applying humor to sell the
product. |
