Humor In Indian Advertising- An Introduction

HUMOR- The oxford dictionary describes humor as ‘the quality of being amusing’. So what exactly is humor? What is it that makes us crack up? Humor is basically a state of mind that we experience when we are amused about something.

Let’s have a look at an example

This picture says a lot without really saying much. It is humorous without being direct. It mocks the nagging nature of a wife especially when their husbands drive. I am sure all husbands must have chuckled at this picture as they feel it’s the story of their life. It’s about the connect that a specific section (the husbands in this case) of the society will feel looking the above picture.

Advertisers try and do something similar. They try to build a connect of their target audience with their product using the tool of Humor. 

 Humor in Indian Advertising has evolved over the years.  Humor is considered an effective but an equally risky way of advertising in India. The Indian society is a diverse in nature. People of various religions, castes, languages, ethnicities, cultures exist together. Thus using Humor in advertising can be risky because it might offend a certain section of the society which in turn can have an adverse effect on the image of the product being advertised.

However over the years people in India have learnt to laugh at themselves.  Especially the youth of the country has the sporting spirit to laugh at themselves . The recent Alia Bhatt funny video that has been circulating on social networking sites is a classic example of the fact the today the youth in India are capable of laughing at themselves. The video has been liked, appreciated and applauded by one and all.

This changing attitude of the people of India has given the advertisers the courage to use humor as a tool for selling their products. 

Humor that is used in advertising is of various forms. Few  of them are-

·         Personification- Where human qualities are attributed to the product. For example the very popular ‘Appy Fizz’ Advertisement.

·      Slapsticks- the comedy that is based on deliberate clumsy actions. The Gillette guard Advertisement where the man is shaving and dancing at the same time.

·         Pun- Ads which use pun are very popular. For example the extremely famous Amul Print Ads. Along with having  pun in them , they gave us food for thought

·         Exaggeration-   Where some quality of the product is exaggerated to such level that it makes the audience laugh. Example- Camlin Permanent Markers.

Today people prefer intelligent humor than slapstick humor. Many brands have used humor as a strategy to establish a connect with the target audience and have been very successful in doing so.  Humor stays in the memory for a long time and thus is one of the best way to ensure the brand and product recall in the mind of the consumer.

Source- Google.

Image Courtesy- Google

Video Courtesy- You Tube