Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 220
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7425-5426-9 • Paperback • July 2007 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Fred K. Beard is professor of advertising at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 1 Historic Attempts at Advertising Humor
Chapter 3 2 Theoretically, What's So Funny?
Chapter 4 3 Why Typology Is a Funny Word
Chapter 5 4 How Does Silly Sell?
Chapter 6 5 When Humorous Ads Aren't Funny
Chapter 7 6 Campaigns That Made Audiences Laugh … and Buy
Chapter 8 Selected Bibliography
Chapter 9 Selected Creative Credits and Awards
In today's world of multi-channel marketing, humorous advertising breaks through the clutter and builds equity by enhancing brand awareness and attitudes. However, humorous advertising can also backfire. Responding to the need for a deeper understanding of humor in advertising, Fred Beard clearly describes the positives and negatives of this frequently used marketing strategy in the well-written and fun-to-read Humor in the Advertising Business. Avoiding excessive technicality, he intersperses theory with interesting cases and illustrations that keep the reader focused on how the material presented can be applied to real-world marketing strategy.
— Dana L. Alden, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai'i
With extensive use of examples, summaries, and illustrations, the book is well-suited for students, academics, and practitioners. . . . Highly Recommended.
— Choice Reviews, March 2008
Fred Beard's book is a delightful romp through a century of business advertising, capturing both the highlights and the low points of what makes us laugh. It is destined to become a standard reference book for anyone conducting serious research on the topic of advertising humor or trying to write short stories, novels, scripts, or advertising copy. Humor in the Advertising Business—the first comprehensive treatment of advertising humor in several decades, and, like its predecessors, full of illustrations, insights, and drollness—should be required supplemental reading for many advertising and promotion courses taught throughout the US.
— Douglas L. Fugate, Western Kentucky University
Features:
Balanced Perspective: Combines the practical perspective of the advertising practitioner with the theoretical and empirical findings of the academic researcher to understand better advertising humor, how it works, and how advertisers use it.
Empirical Data: Contains several author-conducted, original empirical studies, the findings of which support the book's premises.
Examples of Humorous Ads: Boasts dozens of award-winning humorous ads from around the world to illustrate and explain the principles underlying the effective use of humor in advertising.
Advertising Insight: Offers "Funny Business" textboxes with insights from advertising industry experts.
Appendixes: Includes addendum material such as a list of industry awards.