Humor in Advertising (1973) INTRODUCTION This article a major and pioneering study on humor in advertising, and many posterior articles used its results and explore them further. It is a given fact that marketers have increasingly employed humor as the motivation basis to make an advertisement more appealing and persuasive. This practice is based on the belief that the humor can be an effective persuasive tool. However, there is no straightforward evidence of the effectiveness of …showed first 75 words of 1168 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1168 total…be persuasive, but the effect is at best no greater than of serious appeals; (5) Humor tends to enhance source credibility; (6) Audience characteristics may confound the effect of humor; (7) A humorous context may increase liking for the source and create a positive mood. This may increase the persuasive effect of the message; (8) To the extend that a humorous context functions as a positive reinforcer, a persuasive communication placed in such a context may be more effective.