The Role of Humor in Advertising:
Impact on Attention and Memory Automatic translate

Today’s consumers are exposed to thousands of advertising messages daily. Given this information overload, the ability of advertising to capture attention and be remembered becomes critical for brands. Humor is a powerful tool that can differentiate a message from competitors and create a positive association with a product or service.

Psychological foundations of humor perception

The brain processes humorous stimuli in several stages. The first stage involves understanding the humorous intent through cognitive mechanisms and problem solving. The dorsal striatum is activated when incongruity resolution, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are required.

The second stage is associated with the evaluation of humor and includes pleasure, amusement, and laughter in response to a joke. The ventral striatum is involved in processing reward, pleasure, and enjoyment. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown that humorous stimuli activate the mesolimbic reward regions of the brain.

The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in assessing ambiguity, and the right prefrontal cortex is involved in reprocessing information. The amygdala, which is responsible for emotional processing, is also activated by humorous content. These neurophysiological processes explain why humor can create strong emotional connections with advertised products.

Types of humor in advertising practice

Experts identify several basic types of humor used in advertising. The most common is humor based on incongruity. This type is present in approximately 69% of humorous television ads in the United States. Incongruity creates cognitive tension, which is resolved through laughter.

Speck’s classification includes three basic processes: incongruity resolution, arousal-safety, and humorous disregard. These processes form five types of humor: comic wit, sentimental humor, satire, sentimental comedy, and complete comedy. Each type has a different impact on attention and memory of an advertising message.

Babinski’s research identifies three categories of humorous ads based on cluster analysis: taboo violation, exaggeration, and cute imagery. Content that violates social norms or cultural standards increases the recipient’s arousal, which is then reduced through an emotional release — laughter. The emotional processing of such ads is reminiscent of a roller coaster ride.

The influence of humor on attention

Humorous advertising has demonstrated a significantly more effective ability to attract and retain audience attention than neutral ads. Experiments measuring viewing time have shown that humorous ads receive longer attention than their more serious counterparts.

The attention-getting mechanism is linked to the anticipation of pleasure. When the brain anticipates a humorous stimulus, it is more likely to focus on the advertising message. This creates measurable bursts of focus and positive emotions.

A study of preventative health ads on three topics — alcohol, tobacco, and obesity — demonstrated that humorous versions received significantly longer attention. Participants spent longer looking at the funny posters, increasing the likelihood of processing the information they contained.

Absurd ads with incongruous elements also attract more viewing time and eye fixations. While such ads aren’t always better at initially capturing attention, they retain it longer due to the need to resolve cognitive dissonance.

Neuromarketing studies using electroencephalography confirm that humorous content generates increased neural activity. Analysis of event-related potentials revealed differences in the processing of humorous and neutral stimuli at all three stages of humor perception.

The influence of humor on memory

The impact of humor on memory is complex, with mixed results. A study of responses to Super Bowl ads from 1992 to 1997 found a positive and significant relationship between humorous ads and memory performance. Regression analysis confirmed that humor enhances ad message recall.

However, other studies point to potential problems. When humor is too strong, it can distract attention from the brand, directing it to the joke itself. Experiment participants remembered the humorous situation but were unable to recall the advertised product.

The phenomenon was dubbed the "vampire effect." The study found that humor in advertising negatively impacted brand recall and recognition, and also reduced product recall. Respondents with low involvement in the advertised product category were more susceptible to this effect.

The solution lies in the connection between humor and the brand. When strong humor is made more relevant to the product, memory of brand characteristics improves even with casual exposure to advertising. Humor must be structurally, thematically, or intentionally related to the product to create positive effects.

Experiments on recognizing advertising messages a week after viewing them showed that metaphorical and emotional ads outperformed functional ones in terms of memory. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed activation of key memory regions, including the bilateral hippocampus, during information retrieval.

Humorous ads embedded in non-comedy programming were remembered better than those placed in a humorous context. The mood contrast effect enhanced memory for the advertising message. The difference between the mood evoked by the program and the mood created by the ad improved memory.

The Role of Product Engagement

Consumer involvement in a product category significantly moderates the effects of humor. An analysis of long-term data showed that humorous ads are more effective for low-involvement products, based on measures of memory and attitude toward the ad.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model distinguishes two types of information processing. People with a low need for cognition use a peripheral route when processing messages. Their motivation to analyze the message is low, leading to superficial processing.

Consumers with a low need for cognition are more easily persuaded by humor. Meanwhile, those with a high need for cognition may not respond to humor or require very strong arguments to persuade.

For high-involvement products, humor can reduce persuasiveness through a negative distraction effect. Two-sided advertising messages containing both positive and negative information are particularly effective for high-involvement audiences. However, humor in such messages can reduce this effect for high-involvement consumers.

Humor-product congruence is a boundary condition that helps mitigate negative effects during high engagement. When humor is closely linked to product characteristics, it is effective even for demanding audiences.

Attitude to advertising and brand

Humor has a positive effect on attitude toward the ad, which directly influences attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. Mood and attention mediate the power of humor, influencing ad recall.

The positive effects are explained by the fact that humor creates anticipation of pleasure. This increases the likelihood of viewing the ad and changing one’s attitude based on its perception. Humor also distracts consumers from forming false thoughts and reduces resistance to persuasion.

However, the effect of humorous advertising on brand attitude depends on the severity of the violation used to create the comic effect. Two equally humorous ads may have different effects on brand attitude and purchase intentions depending on the severity of the violation.

Ads featuring a severe violation evoked more negative affective reactions than ads featuring a mild violation. As a result, humorous severe violations were more likely to cause damage to the advertised brand. A mediation analysis revealed that the difference in attitudes and intentions was mediated by negative and positive affective reactions, but not by perceived humor.

Exclusivity violations, which threaten a specific person or group, were found to be more risky for brands. Ads featuring a humorous inclusive violation improved brand attitudes compared to a control group, but ads featuring an exclusive violation had no such effect.

Neurobiological mechanisms of memory

Long-term memory encoding has a significant impact on decision-making and future behavior. An analysis of over 150 advertisements revealed a strong correlation between certain creative factors and memory encoding.

Ads with contrast, pauses, and changes in tempo or sound created a 20% higher long-term memory response. Ads with live footage of real people, emotion, and humor increased long-term memory encoding by 15%.

A high level of human interaction in advertising proved to be a key factor, with long-term memory responses 10% higher than those with a low level. Music, especially when its rhythm or lyrics matched the visuals, produced a 14% higher memory encoding response.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that emotionally engaging advertising activates the amygdala, the brain’s emotional processing center, and the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making. This connection between emotion and cognition makes storytelling one of the most powerful marketing tools.

Dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter, is released when consumers anticipate a reward. This principle is evident in loyalty programs that encourage customer return. Humor activates similar reward mechanisms in the brain.

Cultural differences in the perception of humor

Humor is universal, but its effects vary depending on cultural context. Culture influences the evaluation and perception of humor, as well as preferences for the type of humor used. This has implications for attitudes toward advertising and brands.

A study of Chinese and American audiences’ attitudes toward humorous advertising found that differences did not manifest themselves at the aggregate level. Instead, the differences lay in audience sensitivity to the ad’s characteristics.

American audiences showed a strong preference for Chinese brand ads over American ones, while Chinese audiences made no distinction. Americans preferred ads with self-enhancing tactics over those using affiliative tactics, while Chinese audiences again made no distinction.

These findings are consistent with the effect of culturally specific humor use. A preference for self-enhancing humor is more prevalent in the individualistic North American culture. The results of audiences with high humor tolerance and high uncertainty avoidance parallel those of American audiences.

An analysis of advertising in four countries revealed that the prevalence of incongruity as a type of humor remains consistent across cultures. In each country studied, the majority of humorous television ads contained one or more incongruity contrasts.

Content linked to specific cultural dimensions should vary depending on the cultural audience. A study examining differences in aggressive humor between individualistic and collectivist cultures found that the former maintain relatively higher levels of acceptability of this type of humor among consumers.

Internationalization of humorous advertising

An analysis of the Warc 100 most effective global advertising campaigns from 2016 to 2018 revealed that humor was used in an average of 44-47% of ads. This demonstrates a global trend toward the use of humorous techniques.

Europe and North America led in humor usage, with rates of 57% and 54% in 2016. In 2017, these regions maintained their leading positions with 52% and 53%, respectively. The stability of these figures is explained by high investments in advertising and the development of these regions’ markets.

Asia and South America demonstrated high growth rates in advertising, but humor was used experimentally. The cultural values ​​of these regions are more difficult to standardize, so adapting advertising campaigns is more natural.

Developing countries increased their presence in the ranking of effective campaigns, making the percentage distribution across continents more even. However, the high participation of North America and Europe in the index is explained by a number of factors: higher levels of development, better market understanding, higher GDP, and higher marketing metrics.

While universalizing a campaign is significantly easier for companies, tailoring it to a specific national market and target consumers has a far greater impact on attention, brand recall, and relationships. Diverse national cultures share certain universal cognitive structures that underlie their messages.

The need for humor

An individual’s need for humor influences advertising effectiveness. The higher the need for humor, the greater the recall of the advertising message. The need for humor acts as a moderating variable, influencing consumer attitudes, communication intentions, and purchase intentions.

A study of the effect of humorous ads, taking into account the need for humor as a moderator, expanded existing models of the effectiveness of humorous advertising. Adding word-of-mouth intention as an endogenous variable provided a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of influence.

Young adult consumers aged 18 to 34 demonstrated a higher receptivity to humorous advertising. However, the effectiveness of emotional appeals, including humor, varied by age group.

A comparative study of three age groups in Indonesia found that emotional appeals were more effective among young people than middle-aged and older adults. Different types of emotional appeals — fear, humor, and nostalgia — had varying degrees of effectiveness across age groups.

Gender differences

The type of humor — spontaneous or scripted — is perceived differently by men and women. Women’s reactions to spontaneous humor are more positive than to scripted humor, while men’s reactions are unaffected by the type.

The interactive effect was mediated by the perceived humor of the ad. The recipient’s interest in romantic activities enhanced the effect on perceived humor. These results contribute to advertising research by providing an evolutionary explanation for gender-specific responses to humorous ads.

Gender roles in humorous and neutral advertising influenced the effectiveness of the ads. Stereotyping in humorous ads had consequences for ad perception. The study found that humor can enhance or mitigate the effects of gender stereotyping depending on the context.

Areas of application of humorous advertising

Humor in preventative healthcare advertisements has proven to be an effective tool. A study of 17 printed posters with different frames — loss versus gain, humorous versus neutral — and topics including health care planning, cancer screening, and healthy lifestyles, found positive effects.

The use of humor helped improve message acceptability and persuasiveness when addressing a little-known and often resistant topic, such as health care planning. Humorous posters were rated as more persuasive, and their messages were better recognized.

The use of humor in HPV vaccination advertising required caution. For people with low HPV knowledge, humorous ads produced higher attention, more favorable attitudes, and greater behavioral intent to seek prevention and treatment than neutral ads when no disease information was provided.

However, when disease information was present, neutral ads elicited greater attention and a more positive attitude among people with low HPV knowledge than humorous ones. Humor and disease information in the ads had no effect on people with high HPV knowledge.

Airline advertising using humor had a significant impact on customer perceptions. Aggressive humor was found to be the most influential variable in shaping customer perceptions of airlines. This underscores the importance of choosing the right type of humor for a given industry.

The risks of using humor

Misuse of humor carries significant risks for brands. Humor is subjective, and what one person finds funny may not be appreciated by another. There’s a risk of misinterpretation or misunderstanding by the audience.

If humor is too overpowering, it can overshadow the advertising’s core message. Audiences remember the joke but forget the promoted product or brand. This is especially problematic when the brand appears only after the laugh, as memory encodes the joke, leaving the logo secondary.

Humor can cross the line and offend certain individuals or groups. This leads to negative reactions and damages a brand’s reputation. Offensive or inappropriate content can seriously damage a company’s image.

Humor may not resonate with all target audiences. Different cultures, age groups, or demographic segments may have different preferences for humor, making it less effective at reaching a wider audience.

Creating funny advertising can be expensive. It often requires specialized talent and production resources. For smaller companies with limited budgets, investing in a humor-based advertising campaign may not be cost-effective.

Humor isn’t appropriate for all brands or industries. Companies operating in serious industries — healthcare, legal services, or financial institutions — may find that a humorous approach clashes with the perception they’ve worked hard to cultivate. A poorly received joke can cause long-term damage to a company’s reputation.

Optimal use of humor

For maximum effectiveness, humor must be directly related and integrated with advertising messages. The message must be intentionally, thematically, or structurally linked to the product to create positive effects.

Experiments show that ads are more memorable when humor is both strong and relevant to the message. This interaction is mediated by attention and mood. To attract and maintain attention, humor shouldn’t dominate the ad; rather, the message itself should take precedence.

Otherwise, there’s a risk of distracting from the message, resulting in memories of the funny ad rather than the brand or product. Using real, rather than fictional, stimuli creates a stronger connection between advertising and brand recognition.

Combining humor with celebrities can enhance attitudes toward advertising and the brand, as well as brand and copyright recall. However, the choice of celebrity should be consistent with the brand’s personality and the type of humor used.

Early exposure to brand assets — logos, slogans, or distinctive features — increases recognition and memory. Humor avoids this trap by merging humor with brand identity. The setup that creates the humor should be brand-specific, and the ending should represent the brand itself.

Repetition and context

Repeated exposure to advertising over extended periods improves recall. Neuroscience research shows that spaced repetition enhances memory without creating ad fatigue.

However, if humor is executed poorly, it can backfire and lead to advertising fatigue. A joke that doesn’t resonate or is shown too many times becomes tiresome. If consumers don’t find it funny, repeated exposure can actually lead to negative brand perceptions.

The context of humorous advertising placement is critical. Humorous ads were more memorable when embedded in non-comedy programming, and vice versa. The mood contrast effect enhanced memory for the advertising message.

The difference between the mood evoked by the program and the mood of the advertisement improved memory. The discrepancy between the mood of the program and the advertisement created tension and allowed for more deliberate processing of the information.

Performance metrics

The effectiveness of humor is measured by the results it elicits in consumer behavior. The most commonly used metrics are attention, persuasion, recall, memorability, attitude toward the advertising, and attitude toward the brand.

An Oracle study found that 90% of consumers are more likely to recall a brand associated with humor. Furthermore, 72% of consumers prefer a humorous brand over its competitors. These figures underscore the powerful influence of humor in shaping preferences.

Neuroscientific methods make it possible to predict advertising success in a digital context. The correlation between neurophysiological metrics, ad recall, ad liking, and YouTube views was found to be significant. Using an artificial neural network based on neuroscientific metrics, we were able to classify ads with 82.9% accuracy and estimate the number of online views with an average error of 0.199.

Campaigns that evoke enjoyment consistently outperform those that don’t. Neuroscience confirms that humor acts as a "memory enhancer," making advertising more distinctive and enduring. Advertising campaigns that have won IPA and Effie awards demonstrate that humor is a common thread in effectiveness.

Research Prospects

The study of the role of humor in advertising continues to evolve with the advent of new technologies and research methods. The use of electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, eye tracking, and facial expression analysis opens new possibilities for understanding the mechanisms of humor’s impact.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning make it possible to analyze large amounts of ad recall data. Multimodal predictive ad recall models integrate various types of data to more accurately predict performance.

The development of digital platforms and social media is creating new contexts for the application of humor. Memes as a form of humorous marketing are attracting significant research attention. The impact of different types of humorous memes on consumers’ willingness to share advertising is of particular interest.

Brand interaction on social media through aggressive humor has become an effective communication strategy. Using harmless violation theory, the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of aggressive humorous dialogue between brands are studied.

The use of humor in the context of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the creativity and adaptability of advertising agencies. A study of the use of humor in Moroccan advertising during the pandemic, using semiotic analysis, found that contextual use of humor significantly enhances the impact of ads.

The ethical aspects of using humor in social marketing require further attention. The perceived ethicality of humorous campaigns is essential to improving their effectiveness. This is especially relevant for public health campaigns, where inappropriate humor can undermine the seriousness of the message.