The world has suffered greatly over the past few years with the global pandemic, war in Ukraine and now the rising of living costs. Even in conversation with family and friends there is much more negativity and concern these days. Everything is serious.

Can advertising help? Back in the 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s there was a lot of humour in advertising that we all used to laugh about over a drink – they were as popular as the great sitcoms of the time. So, is there a role for advertising to bring humour back to a world that is in desperate need of it?

When I used to work in London there were times when my old creative partner and I were drowning in briefs with unrealistic deadlines, and we used to take 5 to laugh at the situation as it was so ridiculous. To laugh for 5 minutes changed the mood for both of us – we found that we craved a moment of humour, we felt so much better and it gave us a brighter outlook reminding us of an emotion we’d forgotten about.

It’s imperative to be sensitive, humour must be pitched right, or you run the risk of being deemed inappropriate and cancelled. On the plus side though, the reward can be enormous.

The current trend over the past few years have been purpose led advertising but you can combine this trend with humour. There have been some campaigns that have done this very well and struck the right tone. ‘Dumb ways to die’ and Arsenal’s ‘Rainbow laces’ are two. BWTD didn’t target a particular group to laugh at and the Rainbow laces campaign was self-deprecating so strategically they both nailed it.

The sad thing is that these campaigns were all created years ago so we are long overdue a good laugh and surely now is the perfect time for it.

Don’t underestimate the power of humour. Your audience will thank you for it.

GEORGE BELL

CREATIVE LEAD