Humor in the Advertising Business: Theory, Practice, and Wit

Beard's Humor in the Advertising Business offers any reader who studies, teaches, creates, approves, or simply enjoys funny advertising a concise yet thorough exploration of how advertising humor works and what advertisers hope to accomplish with it. As one of advertising's most frequently used message tactics (U.S. advertisers alone may spend as much as $60 billion a year hoping they can make their audiences laugh!), humor is an admittedly complicated topic: One viewer may react very differently from another to the exact same ad―or an ad may get a laugh but not make a sale.

Supported with dozens of the world's funniest ads, insights from advertising's most successful creative strategists and artists, and decades of academic research―Humor in the Advertising Business presents an exploration of the whimsical side of modern advertising. Beard delivers more than a dry explanation of advertising humor. Readers who have chuckled or even laughed out loud at an advertiser's wit (and, really, who hasn't?) will find a highly readable homage here. Great as a supplemental text in Advertising Principles, Copywriting, and Advertising Strategy courses.

Fred K. Beard is professor of advertising at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.