First, let me point out that most comedy commercials do not succeed for the radio advertiser.
Some succeed on a creative level — that is, they’re funny.
But the goal of a humorous commercial should not be to make the listener laugh. It should be to cause the targeted listener to act on the sales message.
The most commonly cited reason for the value of comedy commercials is, “We get their attention by making them laugh, and then we can try to sell them something.”
Wrong.
A second reason — and I’m quoting one of the principals in a company that specializes in funny radio commercials (not my friend Dick Orkin) — is that “if your commercial is funny, then it will stand out from all the other commercials that surround it.”
That statement would be true if yours were the only humorous spot on the air.
But these days most commercials do try to be funny.
So let’s examine the logic:
Your commercial likely will be surrounded by other commercials that attempt to be funny. So yours will “stand out” by…attempting to be funny?
The Real Reason Comedy Commercials Succeed
You already know the average consumer is overloaded with commercial messages. The most commonly quoted figure is 3,000 attempts every day to sell that person something.
We can’t possibly process all those messages. So we automatically filter them, with most never reaching our consciousness and most of the ones that do reach our consciousness immediately being rejected.
In other words, we go through life with our defenses up, guarding us against unwanted intrusion.
Now, picture yourself walking late at night down a dimly lit, deserted city street in a strange, unsavory neighborhood.
You’d be easy prey for a violent criminal.
But you try to lessen your vulnerability by walking briskly, minimizing the amount of time you’ll be alone on that street.
And you adopt a physical attitude that you hope looks so self-assured, even menacing, that it will deter any ne’er-do-well from messing with you.
Maybe you’re clutching a can of pepper spray for self-protection.
In other words, you’ve got your defenses up. You’re a hair’s breadth from your body’s “fight or flight” response.
Now….
Imagine that as you’re walking along that street, suddenly you remember the funniest moment you’ve ever experienced.
As you recall it, you begin to laugh.
You’re overcome with laughter. Sides shaking, bent over, laughing.
The common is phrase is, “Helpless with laughter.”
At the moment, where are your defenses?
Gone.
You’re completely vulnerable.
You can’t fight or flee.
The surest, safest way for a mugger to incapacitate a victim would be to make that person hysterical with laughter.
Fortunately, relatively few muggers read this blog. Otherwise we’d have to enact strict new “Tell A Joke, Go To Jail” laws.
Back to radio commercials….
When an advertisement comes on the radio, the listener’s guard is up. Even though my saying this will offend a few radio sales chauvinists, people do not turn on the radio for the commercials.
Your favorite song is playing on the radio and you give it your full attention, bonding to it once again, probably joining in either vocally or subvocally.
But when the commercials begin, the protective filters take over. You do not react, “Oh, a commercial! Perhaps it contains valuable, unbiased information which will improve my quality of life!”
If the commercial makes you laugh, however, then while you’re laughing your guard is down. Your filter is in the “pause” mode.
So….Does this mean I advocate “making people laugh and then trying to sell them something”?
No. (That’s how most advertisers try to do it. It’s a foolish tactic.)
Instead, I teach professionals to “sell people something while you’re making them laugh.”
How do you do that?
By weaving the comedy and the sales message together.
By creating your spot so that you can’t separate the comedy from the sales message.
By making it so if the listeners remember the “funny part,” they also automatically remember the sales message.
Unfortunately, most attempted comedy commercials consist of two separate, distinct parts: the comedy and the sales message.
(to be continued…)
