Humor has been one of the most popular and most used appeals in advertising. Humor serves the purpose of putting across the message of the advertisements without irritating the audience because of the amusement factor in it. However, in the present scenario, in India new dimensions of humor are being used by the advertisers. This article talks about the various aspects of the new humor appeal in advertising in the Indian context. It also discusses the dos and don'ts of using humor appeal in advertising.

Did you have a chance to see the new advertisement for the Motorola mobile phone `MotoYuva'? The television commercial opens in a house, where a young man is shown with his mobile earphone on, looking for some food in the refrigerator. And an aged man, who turns out to be his father, appears suddenly on the screen and says, "Rahul, yeh kya kar rakha hain tumne ghar ka? Saari cheezein is tarike se faili padi hui hai, jaise ki yeh ghar nahi, koi akhara hai" ("Rahul, what have you done to the room? Everything is strewn around as if this is a circus, not a home.") in an angry tone. The young man tries to say something, but his father continues to tell him about the way he should be organized in life. At this point, the young man switches on the music on his mobile phone, which in this case is the MotoYuva W230.

Wikipedia defines humor as "the tendency of particular images, stories or situations to provoke laughter and provide amusement." Thus, humor appeal in advertising is the use of imagery to generate amusement for the viewers. There is divided opinion among the advertising gurus about the use of humor appeal. While David Ogilvy was against the use of humor appeal, the opening quote by Julia Miller suggests to be cautious while using humor appeals. The fact is that humor is used extensively in advertising. It is reported that the number of television commercials using humor appeal in the US ranges from 11% to 24%. Visual humor seems to be more like a universal language and it travels well across consumer segments. Humor is a lively way of influencing the viewers who are participants in one or more ways in the consumers' purchase decision-making process. In case, the consumers have already formed a better opinion about the product, humor appeal could have a positive impact on them.

However, humor has not been found to be suitable for all types of products. Humor appeals have been found to be more effective for low involvement products such as food and fast moving consumer goods, than for high involvement products such as consumer durables and cars. The logical reason may be that high involvement products tend to have an elaborate decision-making process which takes place before the purchase. Added to that, high involvement products have a longer product life cycle which prompts the prospective customers to seek out more information and facts about the product before the purchase. Humor appeal may not be able to offer the specific information required by the consumer.

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