Having been bombarded by enquiries from final year students last week asking for comments and help with their dissertations, (I even had a lady from Leeds Uni doing Graphic & Communication Design asking about branding and social media), I started thinking about my days at Bournemouth Uni and my dissertation.
Mine was entitled ‘People do not buy from clowns’ Claude Hopkins 1923 – agree or disagree’ to which I chose the alcohol industry as a case study…funny that eh?! Back in the early 1990’s our TV screens were awash with commical adverts for brands like Fosters with Paul Hogan and the brilliant Carling Black Label ads and you can imagine the conclusion I came to……….after huge amounts of research……………and product testing!
Well, what about today? Is humour a great sales tool? Does it work?
One of my favourite adverts ever has got to be the John West Salmon ‘bear’ advert.
The ad itself became so popular that it turned into one of the world’s first internet virals.
It starts, tamely enough, in the style of a nature documentary, showing a group of bears catching salmon at the mouth of a river.
But things take a turn for the downright bizarre when a John West fisherman enters the fray and starts fighting one of the bears, kung-fu style.
The entertaining bout ends when the fisherman distracts the bear by pointing to an imaginary eagle and kicks his adversary in the balls.
The ad was viewed online by more than 300 million people by 2006 and Leo Burnett picked up the BTAA Commercial of the Year in 2001 for the ad.
Click here to see it and remind yourself just how good it was……
Have you got a fav’ funny advert? Maybe Tango or Budweiser or even the comb over for Hamlet? Email Bath Marketing Consultancy at paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk and I will publish the results next week.
Marketing Advice from Bath Marketing Consultancy 
My favourite was a Carling ad during the 1980s which featured a man being tugged along by a bunch of other guys on horseback. You'd think the commercial had ended but then he popped up again in spoof commercials later in the same ad break. The combination of comedy and the surprise factor: sheer genius. I had to wait another 10 years to be old enough to drink Carling, but drink it I did 🙂
My favourite was a Carling ad during the 1980s which featured a man being tugged along by a bunch of other guys on horseback. You'd think the commercial had ended but then he popped up again in spoof commercials later in the same ad break. The combination of comedy and the surprise factor: sheer genius. I had to wait another 10 years to be old enough to drink Carling, but drink it I did 🙂
I remember that one! I also liked the Carling spoof version of Nick Cayman 501 pi** take. Remember that?? It seems you and I recall alcohol ads??!!
I remember that one! I also liked the Carling spoof version of Nick Cayman 501 pi** take. Remember that?? It seems you and I recall alcohol ads??!!
I remember that one! I also liked the Carling spoof version of Nick Cayman 501 pi** take. Remember that?? It seems you and I recall alcohol ads??!!