Humor in Print Health Advertisements: Enhanced Attention, Privileged Recognition, and Persuasiveness of Preventive Messages

Abstract

This study tested the effect of humor in one particular type of print advertisement: the preventive health ads for three topics (alcohol, tobacco, obesity). Previous research using commercial ads demonstrated that individuals' attention is spontaneously attracted by humor, leading to a memory advantage for humorous information over nonhumorous information. Two experiments investigated whether the positive effect of humor can occur with preventive health ads. In Experiment 1, participants observed humorous and nonhumorous health ads while their viewing times were recorded. In Experiment 2, to compare humorous and nonhumorous ads, the memory of health messages was assessed through a recognition task and a convincing score was collected. The results confirmed that, compared to nonhumorous health ads, those using humor received prolonged attention, were judged more convincing, and their messages were better recognized. Overall, these findings suggest that humor can be of use in preventive health communication.

Motivating Health Behavior Change with Humorous Virtual Agents

“…One of the ways health care providers do this is through the use of humor, the use of amusing or comical anecdotes or stories that can result in positive affect in the client. In the context of health counseling, humor has been found to increase the persuasiveness of health messages [5], build rapport, increase satisfaction with the relationship between patients and providers, and increase trust between them [2]. Humor has also been shown to be important in establishing therapeutic alliance, which is the trust and belief that a client has in working with a counselor to achieve their goals [21].…”

A comparative assessment of the effectiveness of humorous contents in television advertisements: the nigerian context

“…Findings of prior investigations conducted on the effect of humour on the effectiveness of advertisements are hereby highlighted: [1] Humour enhances the amount of attention given to adverts (Blanc, N., Brigaud, E., 2014; Weinberger and Gulas, 1992 However, contrary to the results presented above, some studies speculate that humour in advertising may lower message comprehension and also found humorous commercials are no more effective than comparable serious messages (Fang, 2011;Duncan, Nelson, Frontczak, 1984). All the above stated results were obtained from researches conducted in western environments/cultures.…”

Humor in public health messaging

“…Humor has long been used in advertising (Eisend, 2009), and has shown to have the potential to be effective in print advertisements. Blanc and Brigaud (2014) found that participants viewed humorous print ads for longer than they viewed nonhumorous ads, and humorous ads were also recalled better and were more convincing. In a meta-analysis of humor in commercial advertising, Eisend (2009) found that the use of humor in advertising messages had significant positive impacts on attitude towards the ad and brand, attention, positive affect, and purchase intention, while it reduced source credibility.…”

“…While humor has been extensively studied in commercial marketing, there is less known about how humor functions in a health promotion context (Blanc & Brigaud, 2014). Although there has been a considerable amount of research on humor in messaging in public health, there has not been a systematic review or meta-analysis summarizing the findings of the field.…”

“…One final study examined three health topics together, finding similar results across topics. Blanc and Brigaud (2014) examined tobacco, obesity, and alcohol, finding that humorous print PSA attracted more attention, were more memorable, and were rated as more convincing than non-humorous versions. The consistency of the results over the three topics gives credence to their conclusions.…”