Hardee's Burger Advert

Hardee’s Burger advert

This advert is showcasing a new Hardee’s burger that now includes jalapeños so it is now ‘even hotter’. And in keeping with this idea, the advert uses model Kate Upton to create a sort of double entendre by exploiting the different uses of the word ‘hot’. The advert therefore, combines the persuasive technique of using comedy and satirical sexual imagery.

The success of using comedy as a persuasive technique was highlighted in a study by Lammers et al (1983). In the study participants were told by the experimenter that they were taking part in some market research with particular attention on reactions to an advertisement for a brand of sound-sheets. They were shown a tape recording of the advertisement and then asked to complete a questionnaire in response to the advertisement, the participants were either show a serious or comedic version of the advert, the comedic advert was found to be more memorable. The results of the experiment also displayed sex differences in effectiveness of humorous adverts, showing that males rated the comedic advert stronger than females did. The authors propose that the results show that females were more resistant to humour-based persuasive appeals than males.

Lammers, H. B., Liebowitz, L., Seymour, G. & Hennessey, J. (1983). Humour and Cognitive Responses to Advertising Stimuli: A Trace Consolidation Approach, Journal of Business Research, 11, 173-185.