Loser to lady-killer, listen up.
This advert is for a Daihatsu, a
functional, spacious, yet very uncool car. “Family men” needing something to
drive for the school-run typically purchase it, so it definitely lacks the sexy
reputation of an Audi or the flashy displays of wealth from a Lamborghini. Yet
this is a very entertaining advert, as it uses humour, and taps into the sort of
person that the customers of this model want to be, whilst at the same time
pointing out the main desirable feature of the car- how spacious it is. They know that this car won’t fulfil all
their lady-killing desires, but this advert includes them in a personal
“in-joke,” whilst saying “but seriously, I can hold five children, a buggy, two
suitcases, eleven lunch boxes, two dozen toys, six bricks of Lego, and your
wife.”
There is a huge amount of support for humour
in advertising. Sternthal & Craig (1973) explained that humour works in
advertising because it creates a positive opinion of the source, resulting in a
positive mood in the audience, making them more susceptible to persuasion. Worth
& Mackie (1987) exposed students in either a good mood or a neutral mood to
either a pro-attitudinal or counter-attitudinal message comprised of either
strong or weak arguments. They found that participants who were in a good mood
exhibited more signs of reduced systematic processing (an advertisers
goldmine), and more attitude change than those in a neutral mood. Furthermore,
their responses showed less of a contrast between strong and weak messages than
those in the neutral condition. This is excellent news for the Daihatsu, as it
means that the humour used in the campaign may lessen the contrast between this
model and a better one.
Sternthal & Craig (1973) also claim
that humour attracts attention, which makes the car more memorable. The
availability bias therefore ensures we have this car in the forefront of our
minds. Schwartz et al. (1991) demonstrated that participants who were asked to
recall six examples of their own assertive behaviour rated themselves as more
assertive than those who were asked to recall twelve examples. This is because
the condition where they had to recall twelve examples was much harder to do.
It can therefore be concluded that if a car was easy to recall due to a
humorous advert, people may rate it more highly as they might assume that if it
weren’t a good car, they would not have spent so much time thinking about it.
Finally, Sternthal & Craig (1973) argue that humour may distract the
audience meaning that they are less likely to produce counter-arguments against
the message. In the example at hand, the audience could argue that they want a
car that is a little sexier than the Daihatsu, however because its’ uncool
reputation has been acknowledged in its own advertising campaign, it is
protected by a humorous buffer.
To conclude, if you actually want to be a lady-killer, this is not the car for you.
However if you are ever in the position of having to sell this sort of car, or
indeed yourself (e.g. want to ask someone out, but are certain they are out of
your league), humour is the way forward. It creates a positive opinion of the
source, a positive mood in the audience, will be memorable and therefore easy
to recall, and distracts the audience from all the negatives (e.g. a dodgy
haircut or the fact you live in your mum’s basement). Good luck.
Sternthal, B., & Craig, C.
(1973). Humour in Advertising. Journal of Marketing, 37(4),
12-18.
Worth, L., & Mackie, D. (1987).
The cognitive mediation of positive affect in persuasion. Social cognition, 5(1).
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