2025 trend: Humour
Adverts are amusing again. But how do you stay on the right side of humour? Industry experts share their knowledge on why funny is back in fashion and what it takes to land the joke.
Humour in advertising is having a renaissance, but it can be tricky to get right. When you think about the ads you remember, more often than not they’re the ones that amused you.
For me, it’s the Cadbury advert with the gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. For Jacob Dawson, Co-founder and Creative Director at One Day Video, it’s Waka Kotahi’s viral ‘Ghost Chips’ ad.
While both of these ads aired in the 2000s, humour is now making a comeback after years of purpose-driven advertising, says Dawson.
“Ads go through cycles – purpose-driven ads came out and everyone jumped on that, but you can’t care about them all. And instead of energising you, it fatigues your ability to care.”
Especially with the state of the world at the moment – pandemic aftermath, war, climate change and a cost of living crisis – it’s no surprise people are looking for a reprieve, he adds.
Ready to play
This was also a key finding in Play, a recent study conducted by TRA that surveyed people and brands across Aotearoa and Australia to find out what humour and playfulness means to them.
“The industry was talking about humour, so I wanted to know whether that’s just marketing getting bored or whether you could see that reflected in the people in the streets,” says TRA Partner Colleen Ryan.
The majority said yes they were ready to be playful, but a large proportion still said no, and so it pays to give people options, she adds.
“We all have bad days… so giving people the ability to opt in and opt out is really important. Don’t force me to do something playful to buy the product when I just want to hit the ‘buy’ button.”
Humour vs playful
Ryan talks about humour and playfulness, but what’s the difference?
Playfulness is used to bring people together, whereas humour is used to disarm and grab attention – which makes it a useful tool when talking about hard topics, says Ryan.
A perfect example of both is Motion Sickness’ latest work for NZ Herpes Foundation – a behaviour change campaign to make Aotearoa the best place in the world to have the virus.
The campaign consists of a destigmatisation course, a series of videos featuring well-known Kiwis – the likes of boxer Mea Motu, former All Blacks legend Buck Shelford and former coach Graham Henry.
“We used an unexpected approach and humour to address a topic that no one wanted to talk about – it’s intimidating, embarrassing – but that humour made it accessible,” says Motion Sickness Executive Creative Director Sam Stuchbury.
“Kiwis resonate well with humour in advertising… but there was also a playfulness to the Herpes campaign, we made it interactive – the public could go onto the website, engage with the videos and help New Zealand get to the top of the destigmatisation leaderboard.”
Within a week of its launch, the campaign had 3 million views on social, reached over 600,000 unique New Zealanders and made national and international headlines.
Making a point
It’s not the first campaign where Motion Sickness has used humour to make a point – in 2020, it launched Keep It Real Online with the government to provide tips and advice managing online harm for families.
One ad features two ‘porn actors’ showing up naked at a teenage boy’s house to tell his mum he’s been watching them online.
While the entire campaign garnered 40 million views globally, and successfully changed attitudes in New Zealand, it also drew complaints.
“The complaints were all of a similar ilk, ‘I would like to alert you that I saw the pornstar ad in the middle of Country Calendar and I had to talk to my kid about pornography’ – well, that was the point. It worked, and none of the complaints were upheld,” says Stuchbury.
Some complaints came in for Frank Energy’s Same Energy, Probably Cheaper campaign, saying it was ageist to feature older people on exercise machines.
But again, the complaints weren’t upheld and the campaign recently won gold at the Effie Awards Aotearoa 2024. His advice to brands and marketers? Expect complaints – not everyone will find it funny.
Safe isn’t always effective
Stuchbury and Dawson agree that advertisers have a duty to entertain, and humour done well can yield fantastic results for a brand.
But most are afraid of their comedy not landing well and so shy away from reaping the benefits, they say.
The irony is playing it safe inhibits business. So Dawson encourages brands to experiment – “it’s more an art than a science,” he says.
The levels of humour and playfulness depend on the client, adds Stuchbury. For Herpes Foundation and Keep It Real Online, humour worked to break down barriers and start conversations, giving people the licence to share and support the content without fear of judgement.
For Big Save Furniture’s ads featuring a slowly melting butter sculpture were about standing out in a cluttered category. Recent work for Four Words however was all about showcasing a desirable brand – humour here might have devalued the messaging, he says.
Self-deprecation is key
Uber and Uber Eats have also been creating amusing ads successfully for many years. The key? Self-deprecating humour, which Aussies and Kiwis have mastered as part of their culture, says Lucinda Barlow, Head of International Marketing at Uber.
“Self-deprecation is a shortcut to humility and likeability. It is inclusive as everyone is brought in on the joke and reminds people why they should like us.
“Uber Eats’ campaign ‘Get almost, almost anything’ spends most of the time focusing on all the things you can’t actually get on Uber Eats,” she adds.
The campaign’s latest iteration features actor and comedian Jason Alexander ordering canned laughter, so someone will laugh at his jokes. This quickly backfires as the laugh track follows him into serious situations.
Other big name actors have starred in the ads, including Nicola Coughlan of Bridgerton fame, Harry Potter star Tom Felton, and Kris and Kendall Jenner.
“Finding celebrities who are willing to laugh at themselves and the tropes of advertising adds to the fun,” says Barlow.
To include humour in their ad campaigns, Barlow says they stick to the fundamentals – developing a consistent tone of voice, keeping it simple, playing with tropes and cultural trends and then adapt their humour to fit the market they’re advertising in.
This story was published in NZ Marketing magazine issue 81, December-January 2024/2025.
Read more stories from issue 81.
