Chameleon Comedians

Could comedians cut it in the advertising world?

It could be argued that comedy has many parallels to advertising. Apart from the fact they both try to sometimes make you laugh, it seems that both succeed on finding an observation, truth or insight about a situation/product/person and exaggerating this to an audience. One to get laughs the other to get sells or both in some cases.

For example Lee Evans takes the simplest of observation and truths about "home cooking":
“I love restaurants, and that’s the thing now, they always boast about now, restaurants…home made cooking…I don’t want home made cooking, that’s why I’m here! ‘cos I don’t like the shit at home! Yeah…you know! And they don’t say who’s home it is, do they! Could be a mental home, couldn’t it!”

It's small insights, such as questioning what "home cooking" really means that could be a great starting point for say an organic restaurant company trying to outshine its fast food chain competitors. A small truth that has a broad appeal.

I then found a blog post on Nat and Lol's blog, Smells like team spirit. on campaign where the girls have been going to sketch writting classes and analysing sketches to see why they are successful. From these classes they noted that:
"I was struck by how similar this is to writing an ad campaign. The joke is the central thought, or strategy. And the variations are simply different executions of the same thought - just as three posters in an ad campaign are basically escalating the same concept in different ways."

Of course it also works the other way around- Copywriters can turn to comedy. Take Steve Patterson for example, a Canadian comedian once a copywriter who was fired because he was" shamelessly trying to inject humour into an ad ". So too much humour can also be a turn off.

I also remember watching a documentary where the comedy duo Smith and Jones get challenged with writing an advert. (Youtube and Google searching unsuccessful with referencing, please inform me if you remember it) However after a good start all I remember is that they found it really hard trying to tone down the laugh appeal and focus on the core message.

So lessons learnt...
Comedy can swing both ways. Perhaps the common denominator in both careers is finding that insight that people can connect with which makes something ordinary have appeal. Perhaps advertising is trying to find that balance between laughs and sales. Either way usually the funniest adverts are the most memorable.