Ads that make you smile

by Steve Fradkin, President
The Wizard of Adz

Ask anyone to name a particularly good advertisement and I’ll bet the answer you get will be a humorous ad.  OK…so carry the experiment a bit further and ask who the ad was for.

“Uh…some beer company…I think…or maybe…uh…”

That’s because most writers of humorous ads forget something.  It’s not enough to make people smile; you’ve got to make them buy.

There are, of course, some exceptions.  The Geico ads, for example.  The Aflac duck.  Building #19’s cartoon circulars.

They work because the humor is built around the core message.  “So easy a caveman could do it” hammers home how easy it is to go to Geico.com.  The duck just repeats the company name — clearly, the company’s objective was to gain awareness.  The Building #19 fliers reinforce the company’s down-and-dirty, no frills image.

But the typical funny ads — the ones that make you chuckle and say “Wasn’t that clever” — are little more than miniature sitcoms with sponsor names at the end.  Perhaps the most famous one was the sock puppet spokesthing for an online retailer.  Quick…who was the advertiser? (answer below)

Some of the ads we do for clients are humorous.  Sometimes, in fact, the humor is designed specifically to appeal to the client’s target market.  But whether we’re doing a funny ad or a serious one, we strive to produce ads that make you smile.  Ads that produce the kind of action that makes you happy.

Don’t spend your advertising dollars entertaining people.  Invest your money in ads that will work.  Ads that are strategically targeted and crafted to leave a convincing message with your prospective customer.  Let us show you what we mean.  For our collection of case histories, call Sharon at The Wizard of Adz (781-821-1818) or email Sharon@WizardOfAdz.com.

Answer:
The sock-puppet ads from Pets.com were truly creative, and kinda funny.  But Pets.com stock tumbled over 98% from a high of $14 to just 25¢ when the company folded.  Can you name the company using the sock puppet these days?

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