About The 5 Rules of Business Humor…
Posted at February 17, 2010
Business humor is a two-edged rubber chicken. Done right, it can make you famous overnight. Done wrong, it can make you famous overnight for reasons you don’t want to be famous for.
Ever hear of the old Burger King slogan, “It takes two hands to handle a Whopper”?? Not if Burger king can help it…
There’s lots more examples of how humor fails in business, but don’t let that scare you into giving up the idea altogether.
Here’s 5 rules of business humor, courtesy of Sparkplugging.com, written by Brad Shorr, cartoonist and expert on this sort of thing:
- Do Not Make Fun of Your Customers. Have you seen the V8® Juice commercials where people get a thump on the forehead because they were too stupid to drink the product? I hate them. Is the idea to shame a person into buying by branding him clueless? Doesn’t motivate me to buy, much less become loyal to the brand.
Not a very engaging approach, huh? Is your humor laughing WITH them or AT them??
- Do Not Make Fun of Your Industry. Remember the WaMu commercials featuring a group of stuffy, doddering old bankers babbling witlessly to a hip, casually dressed WaMu employee? Risky. By stereotyping the banking industry as old-fashioned, WaMu may alienate large segments of the market; in this case, anyone over forty. On top of that, given our current banking crisis, old-fashioned conservative values might be more prized than ever in a bank, even among the young. In any case, disparaging your own industry begs the question, then why are you in it? Crusades are serious business – if you’re on one to change your industry, why are you making jokes? Doesn’t compute.
Does that include this screwy work at home online Internet marketing industry?
- Do Not Use Stereotypes. Building on the last point, it’s wise to stay away from stereotyping of any kind. Even today, offensive stereotypes have a way of creeping in to business humor. Why? Because often, there’s a fine line between funny and offensive. For example, I did a cartoon for a book pitch where an extremely old woman with a walker is at a used car lot. A moustache-twirling salesman is trying to sell her a souped-up sports car, telling her she’ll never be late for bingo again. Is that ageism? Used car salesmanism? Even a cartoon as innocent as this could easily backfire, so steer clear. (Car puns intended.) I believe you can be plenty funny without being offensive, so why take a chance?
It’s true, it’s been done. Certainly not on Comedy Central, but it’s been done!
- Do Be Brief. As funnyman William Shakespeare once said, brevity is the soul of wit. Many a good joke has been ruined by driving it into the ground. Take the earlier V8® and WaMu examples – as a one-time shot, either commercial would have been amusing and appealing. But beating us over the head with it quickly becomes annoying.
Think “Less is more”. And wasn’t it Abe Lincoln who said that?!?
- Do Repeat Yourself. As with most other marketing activities, repetition is crucial. A one-off cartoon might attract some short-term buzz, but to really get the job done, do a series. What you want is for customers to see your newsletter in their email in-box and think, “Great! Another newsletter from XYZ. I can’t wait to see what cartoon they’ve got for me this month.”
If you’re interested in cartoons, Brad can help you out. Also, there’s my old pal, Dan Rosandich too.
See the original post in its entirety, including a cool cartoon:
Any “rules of business humor” you’d like to add?
