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When Does Humorous Marketing Hurt Brands?

Author

Listed:
  • Warren, Caleb
  • McGraw, A. Peter

Abstract

Humorous advertisements attract attention and entertain consumers. Nonetheless, attempting humor is risky because consumers may be offended by failed humor attempts. We propose another reason that attempting humor is risky: humorous advertisements can hurt brand attitudes by eliciting negative feelings — even when consumers find the ad funny. Three experiments and one correlational study demonstrate that humorous marketing is more likely to hurt the advertised brand when it (1) features a highly threatening humorous ad rather than mildly threatening ad, (2) makes fun of a subset of the population rather than people in general, and (3) motivates avoidance rather than approach. We conclude by offering five guiding questions for marketers who want to use humor to attract attention and entertain consumers without inadvertently hurting brand attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Warren, Caleb & McGraw, A. Peter, 2016. "When Does Humorous Marketing Hurt Brands?," Journal of Marketing Behavior, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 39-67, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:now:jnljmb:107.00000027
    DOI: 10.1561/107.00000027
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    Cited by:

    1. Xie, Yuguang & Liang, Changyong & Zhou, Peiyu & Jiang, Li, 2024. "Exploring the influence mechanism of chatbot-expressed humor on service satisfaction in online customer service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Yang, Hongyan & Xu, Hong & Zhang, Yan & Liang, Yan & Lyu, Ting, 2022. "Exploring the effect of humor in robot failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Kobel, Sarah & Groeppel-Klein, Andrea, 2021. "No laughing matter, or a secret weapon? Exploring the effect of humor in service failure situations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 260-269.
    4. Bitterly, T. Bradford & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2019. "The impression management benefits of humorous self-disclosures: How humor influences perceptions of veracity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 73-89.
    5. repec:hal:journl:hal-04666015 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Hoang, Chi & Knöferle, Klemens & Warlop, Luk, 2023. "Using different advertising humor appeals to generate firm-level warmth and competence impressions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 741-759.
    7. Maria Giovanna Confetto & Maria Palazzo & Maria Antonella Ferri & Mara Normando, 2023. "Brand Activism for Sustainable Development Goals: A Comparative Analysis in the Beauty and Personal Care Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-15, April.

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