Laughter: the best medicine for a memorable message

“How many ways can a man tell his sweetheart, ‘I love you?’

“Nothing says ‘forever’ like up to 6.4 terabytes per second . . . and nothing says ‘I love you’ like six times the mobile backhaul capacity.”

That’s part of the voice over for an ad for Cisco’s ASR 9000 router – “the ultimate expression of his everlasting affection” – leading up to Valentine’s day back in 2009.

Obviously, one does not buy a $250,000 commercial router as a romantic gesture for their significant other. It’s a rather unsexy product (depending on your feelings about “backhaul capacity.”)

And that was the point.

The campaign caught the attention of the media, spawning articles about the product and the brains behind the ads and conversations on forums in the industry. People liked it. It was memorable. It was shareable. It was cute. It was funny.

Why we’re told not to use humour

When learning to write professionally, I was warned several times, in different courses, companies, and contexts, to avoid trying to be funny. While this may be a reflection on my personal ability to tell a joke, it more likely comes from another place.

The consensus was, if being funny didn’t directly help get my message across, it didn’t belong. And it almost never would. Humour is also risky: what if a joke doesn’t land and offends someone? It relies on a knowledge of language, common experiences, or popular culture that not everyone shares: what if someone didn’t understand it? Sometimes it seems cheap: what if all those puns turned people off?

Writing professionally (and being professional, for that matter) is all about delivering on what’s expected. And humour is all about the unexpected. Makes sense, right?

It turns out, there’s a long history of humour being seen as a negative. Not only was it seen as tragedy’s less civilized brother in the dramatic arts, but having a funny bone was counted as a negative character trait by philosophers and intellectuals.

“It demonstrated superiority, vulgarity, Freudian id conflict or a defense mechanism to hide one’s true feelings,” according to an article from The Conversation.

But opinions are changing

There are tons of outlets for humour – it’s a behemoth of an industry, when you consider TV, movies, video games, and other media. And it even has its own annual conference, the International Humour Conference. You know it’s serious business when there’s a conference.

More and more, we’re learning to appreciate the positive impact that a laugh can have.

“Humour can be used to make others feel good, to gain intimacy or to help buffer stress . . . And humour activities or exercises result in increased feelings of emotional well-being and optimism,” continues The Conversation.

And it’s powerful. Scientific American reports on a study showing that laughter actually hijacks our brains and overrides other emotions. “Brain regions usually involved in decision-making and controlling our behaviour have to be inhibited to facilitate spontaneous and unbridled laughter.”

Sounds like something we could use after all.

Why entertainment value matters

Entertainment is a huge reason why people follow creators online, whether they’re funny people or brands with a hilarious side, according to Hootsuite. “Laughing can interrupt a bad day, break through an awkward moment, and help connect us to others.” Not only does it make us notice the first time, but it keeps us coming back for more.

There are some rather compelling reasons for this, the article continues:

• It grabs peoples’ attention in a world where most content goes unnoticed amid a wave of digital noise.
• It keeps you in peoples’ memory banks for longer, even if the joke is more about your brand identity and voice and less about the product.
• It pumps endorphins into our system, meaning we feel happier, less stressed, and feel a connection similar to that when we’re having fun with friends.
• It makes you human by showing you’re relatable.

Brands like Old Spice, Tide, Charmin, K-Mart, and Cisco have taught us a valuable lesson. You don’t need a splashy product – in fact, it can be as everyday as toilet paper. To make us listen, sometimes you just need to make us smile.

Just don’t go overboard

Like a good wine, humour is best used in moderation. The last thing you want to do is muddle your content with so many jokes that the point gets lost, or your audience gets confused.

Give them any excuse to click away and they will. But give them just enough to keep reading and you’re golden.

And I can’t emphasize this enough: you need to know your audience, what their experiences are like, and what their values are. The last thing you want is to end up like DiGiorno did with their #WhyIStayed hashtag, or like Kenneth Cole over the protests in Egypt.