Robertson: ‘The joke’s on you if you’re not making us laugh’

JUST 10% of the Gold and Grand Prix Lions awarded in Cannes last year used humour in the winning campaigns, noted Andrew Robertson, president and CEO of BBDO Worldwide.

“Humour is in decline,” he said in a packed Debussy for the Thursday session, entitled “But Seriously Though” – Why We Need To Make People Laugh.

“Nobody wants funny anymore,” Robertson said, showing research where funny ads especially declined during the pandemic and global recession.

But the BBDO head suggested that creatives embrace the acronym LMFAO (laughter means financial achievements optimised). He related a host of humorous campaigns that prove that funny sells. Many utilise schadenfreude, which according to one study is the highest form of effective humour.

A prime example was a Mission Impossible – Fallout campaign ad showing geriatric men struggling to act out their spy fantasies, and which came with the punchline: “Don’t wait for movies to get old.”

“It was very funny and very, very effective,” said Robertson of the film, which was made and tested before the pandemic, yet was rated in the top 5% of ads for enjoyment and top 5% for expres-

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siveness during the middle of the COVID wave. Humour also works on a political level, with Barack Obama appearing on Zach Galifianakis’ YouTube comedy show, Between Two Ferns, to promote the healthcare.gov website set up as part of the Affordable Health Act. After the host satirised the president — he was labelled a “community organiser” — there was a 40% increase in traffic to the site, Robertson said. Even if Gen Z is often perceived as a cynical and gloomy demographic, 76% also want their ads to be funny, yet only 36% of TV ads utilise humour, he added.