The use of humor in television advertising: a content analysis of humorous ads across humor types versus product types

The effectiveness of using humor in ads may be influenced by several factors such as humor types, media, audience, or product types. However, Weinberger and Gulas also suggest that it is a difficult task to study from every perspective. Based upon the limitation, this study only measured two factors: product types and humor types.

In addition. Madden and Weinberger (1984) found U.S. advertising executives generally believed that radio and TV were the media best suited to the use of humor. Therefore, this study focused on the ads presented on TV. This way, the factor of placement might be controlled.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the use of different types of humor in television advertising across different product types. Two goals are present to probe this issue. The first is to reexamine the incidence of humor in TV ads and examine the incidence of these ads across product types. Second, the main goal of this study is to compare the use of different humor types across product types.