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MARKETING | Noah Brier

No Inside Jokes!

Why are there no inside jokes in advertising anymore?

August 6, 2006 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 6 COMMENTS

On Friday night I went to a friend's improv performance. The evening consisted of three teams performing for an audience of 50 or so people. I had a good time and did a fair amount of laughing along the way. On the way home my girlfriend Brittany and I were talking about the performance and she said something that really got me thinking: The jokes people liked the best were the ones that replayed an earlier gag. It was almost like they were telling inside jokes, she said. Thinking about it, she was absolutely right, it was those earlier references that got the most laughs.

Tonight, when I got home I had an email from Kareem with a link to an article titled "The Death of the Double Entendre all about how there are no more inside jokes in advertising. Whereas once advertisers expected some level of cultural competency to understand what they were creating, today we simplify things to a level where misinterpretation is impossible. Sure, today's advertising may be more risque, but that doesn't mean it's more interesting. In an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible advertisers have all but ended the inside joke. They wouldn't dare write a line that couldn't be easily understood by their entire demographic segment.

That, I think, is the problem. We're too mass. We spend a lot of money trying to generate more leads (the ultimate goal of advertising), rather than better ones. It all seems pretty backwards to me.

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COMMENTS

1Devin

I think you're right here but this can be more broadly definied in terms of.. well.. everything. We're so simplistic. Jokes consist largely of T&A and that's it. There's no complexity to our humor in sitcoms... why would the commercials be any different?

August 6, 2006

2Paul McEnany

That's part of what made Seinfeld so great. They were masters of the somewhat obscure reference. The show would still be funny if you didn't get some of the jokes, but they weren't afraid to tell a joke half the audience wouldn't get. And they were that much more endearing to the ones that did.

And you hit the nail on the head. We're on this quest to be likeable and relatable to everyone, which is just never possible. If noone dislikes you, chances are that everyone, while not turned off by you, are still bored by you, which is the biggest death sentence of them all.

August 6, 2006

3Noah Brier

I think you're both right. Most television is uninteresting. Of course, there are exceptions like Seinfeld or more recently Arreseted Development. In AD, they would actually replay a joke that happend like 10 episodes ago without even a nod to the fact. It was great.

Paul, I couldn't agree more. Those brands that are great are the ones that aren't afraid of detractors. Passion is passion, whether it's love or hate.

August 7, 2006

4Harding Dies

There are two reasons for the lack of inside jokes in advertising.

First, most large audiences are too simple (read: truly undereducated, non-literate, and get their information and news from "Entertainment Tonight", not papers or other printed or electronic news sources) to understand the less-than-obvious jokes. References to anything that smacks of post-secondary education is shunned. [An example: I work with two young men who don't understand any references to black-and-white movies or TV shows simply because they REFUSE to watch anything in B&W - so they've never seen "Casablanca", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Citizen Kane", any "Playhouse 90" shows. Others don't watch any TV shows other than sports, 'reality shows', WWE or MTV. And these are people who went to college!]

Second, advertisers and their agencies are so afraid of 'offending anyone '(important) that they write commercials and ads that are antiseptic with respect to anything racial, cultural or religious. When it comes to sexual references, they don't want to offend the gays, but outright sex if OK since it's accepted in the mainstream shows and media. The only group they ignore is the far-right Christians, because even the Mainstream Media attack them as radical, so they are seen as impotent. And the one religion they studiously avoid is Islam, because since no one group controls them, they don't want to become the target of a 'jihad', which could occur. Even the Mainstream Media are afraid of that group [evidence: the Media always refer to them as insurgents or local militia, never Islamic fanatics or Islamic terrorists].

Harding

August 7, 2006

5Jack

It's a reality today that person simply " forget " having fun, making jokes. Everything is in a great hurry, everything becomes more and more serious. As you said, nobody permits the luxury to risk. The jokes are the apanage of the smart people. So, there could be persons that cannot understand the message at all!

August 7, 2006

6corinne flax

I agree that ads are simple minded, except for those ads that are meant to reach the more 'educated' consumer http://www.formavision.info/main.htm
check out this mission statement

August 8, 2006