Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis

Contents......Page 7
Tables, Figures, and Exhibits......Page 11
Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 13
1 History of Humor in Advertising......Page 17
Humor Pioneers......Page 26
Growth of Humor in Advertising......Page 30
History of Research on Humor in Advertising......Page 32
Analysis of Research on Humor in Advertising......Page 33
Notes......Page 34
2 What Is Humor? And How Does It Work?......Page 35
What Mechanism Explains How Humor Works?......Page 36
What Makes Humor Work? Enabling Factors......Page 45
Integrating Humor: A Challenge Framework......Page 47
Components of Humor......Page 52
Demographic Factors......Page 57
Culture, Subculture, and Ethnicity......Page 62
Psychographic Factors......Page 65
Other Individual-Level Factors......Page 66
Paradox of Humor......Page 68
Note......Page 70
4 Media and Humor......Page 71
Using Humor in Different Media......Page 72
Where Is Humor Effective?......Page 80
5 Product Type and Humor......Page 87
An ELM Explanation of How Humor Works in Advertising......Page 88
Using Humor With Different Products......Page 98
Conclusion......Page 106
The Broad View of Humor......Page 109
Types of Humor......Page 112
Communication Goals and Humor......Page 116
Conclusion......Page 138
7 Context Issues......Page 141
The Importance of Context in Advertising......Page 142
Source Context......Page 143
Media Context: Humor in Advertising and Advertising in Humor......Page 144
Micro-Social Context......Page 146
Macro-Social Context......Page 147
Ad-Induced Context......Page 149
Conclusion......Page 150
8 Research Methodology Issues......Page 153
Advertising Research......Page 155
Lab Studies Versus Field Studies......Page 156
Audience Factors......Page 168
Product Factors......Page 171
Comparable Executions......Page 172
Attempted Humor Versus Perceived Humor......Page 175
Conclusion......Page 177
Entertaining Some......Page 178
Offending Others......Page 185
Notes......Page 202
10 General Conclusions and Research Directions......Page 203
How Humor Works......Page 205
What Humor Can Do......Page 207
What We Do Not Know: Directions for Future Research......Page 213
Parting Words......Page 218
Note......Page 219
Bibliography......Page 221
Name Index......Page 239
Subject Index......Page 241
About the Authors......Page 255