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Do Funny TV Commercials Work? Research Gives Surprising Answer; Also, the Funniest Ads Are Ranked (See the Videos Here)

Jul 16, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Funny television commercials make up one out of five commercials airing on television, and new research from syndicated advertising-testing firm Ace Metrix tested many of the funniest ads to see whether they actually help to sell things, reports Advertising Age.

The conclusion: Funny ads generally don’t work better than other commercials, according to the story.

That’s not to say that viewers don’t like the spots, according to the story. Humorous ads receive more attention and are liked more by viewers, but the report found little correlation with effectiveness.

"In fact, funny ads were slightly less likely to increase desire or purchase intent than unfunny ones," the article notes.

Still, combining humor with relevance and information can be one way to keep people tuned in to an ad, according to Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix.

"If you’re equal on relevance and information, almost always funny will win" over unfunny ads, Daboll said, "because it drives the other scores like likability and attention."

Ace Metrix ranked the funniest ads to debut in the U.S. between January 2011 and March 2012, with DirecTV, Walmart, Chevrolet, Huggies and Buffalo Wild Wings among the marketers placing spots in the top 10.

The firm also ranked the top 10 funniest brands, with Clorox, Doritos, Miller Lite, Geico and eBay all making the list.

Here’s one of our favorites among the ads that were ranked the funniest.

Click here to see other clips, and the top 10 rankings.

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