Humour is finally making a comeback in advertising, and it’s about time. It is, after all, the reason that many of us got into the industry; to entertain people, make them laugh, and to have fun doing it.  

At the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival, 75% of UK and US Film Lions winners went for laughs, up from 52% in 2023 – a tangible and encouraging shift.

But good things rarely come without their share of bad, and in this case, the ‘bad’ is when ads try way too hard. There’s nothing less funny than someone trying to be funny, and with brands it’s no different.

Advertising isn’t about trying to force a laugh – it’s about meaningfully building a consistent story whilst driving business results. Humour can be the rocket fuel for all of that, but it’s got to be done right.

The art of being funny

When humour works, it’s a powerful thing. It’s emotional. It affects you. It unapologetically pokes fun at what’s important to you and cuts through the white noise of day-to-day bullshit... and it becomes instantly memorable. We’re naturally drawn to people who make us laugh, and the same goes for brands. In a world where everyone’s trying to be louder and shinier, a bit of smart humour may be all you need to build much needed trust and loyalty.

But good humour in advertising isn’t just about cracking a bang average gag, testing it with a research group and calling it a day. It’s got to have insight, meaning, nuance, and a real understanding of your audience. It’s about taking a genuine truth - something that people actually care about and relate to – then finding something fresh and interesting to say about it. Often washed down with a good measure of self-deprecation and sardonic irony… or maybe that’s just me.

Most importantly, it simply has to make sense for the brand. We’re not comedians, after all.

Two of my favourite funny ads tick all these boxes. This spot for US pizza chain Little Caesars is one of them – who says a 15-second coupon ad for a fast-food brand can’t be funny? In the ad, a man in a comically large arm cast breaks free from it – screaming all the way – so he can fish a $5 dollar bill out of his pocket to pay for his pizza. It’s quick, deliciously simple, it catches us off guard, and most importantly, it plays into the truth that most of us won’t let anything get in the way of getting money off a decent pizza.

The second is this ad for Setapp, which I had the pleasure of working on. Setapp is a subscription-based software catalogue – it couldn’t sound any more boring. Certainly no place for humour, right? But in fact, serious categories are often the perfect candidates for humour because very few brands ever bother to use it. This was part of a campaign of work that highlighted the importance of staying in your flow – the key was to make it so unexpected and weird that you couldn’t help but take notice. Plus, it links back to a pretty relatable universal human insight – the tendency we all have to get distracted from important tasks… we’ve all been there, right?

Be prepared to take risks

If you choose humour then accept that not everyone is going to find you funny, and that’s ok. Jokes that try to make everyone laugh are more likely to make no one laugh.

Would everyone have found the slightly childish innuendo in Kmart’s 2013 ‘Ship my pants’ ad funny? Probably not. But it worked with the audience it was aiming for and addressed a customer problem: its reputation for out-of-stocks. With a media budget of less than $1m, Ship my pants achieved 30 million online views within a year, alongside 160 million social impressions and a 24:1 favourability rating on YouTube. Most importantly, it led to average store-to-home monthly sales of $1.4m – a nearly 300% increase in incremental sales.

Brands should also be prepared to be flexible. Sometimes humour arrives in unexpected ways, and you have to be willing to lean into that. In this ad for the Guardian, (one I also had the pleasure of working on) for example, the end line was improvised. Be flexible to the last and remember, humour rarely plays by the rules.

Humour is hard to get right. That’s why most brands avoid even trying. But when it’s done properly, it can be revolutionary. Oracle found that 90% of consumers are more likely to remember a funny ad, and 72% would pick a humorous brand over its competitors.

Stand for something, know your audience and commit. But most importantly, be funny.