Do This Year’s Christmas Ads Prove Brands Have Found Their Funny Bone?

Did you hear the one about the brand that wanted to make a funny ad? In 2023, the chances are you probably did. According to data from Kantar, in 2023 56% of British television ads used humour - up from a low of 43% during the pandemic. And it’s not a phenomenon that’s unique to the UK. Kantar’s research covers over 60 countries and it looks like the whole world is finding its funny bone - though comedy-loving Brits are sitting in the front row. 

Lynne Deason is head of creative excellence UK at Kantar and she’s been following this phenomenon closely - and as funny ads increase she’s starting to see a pattern that makes her grin. “I like to think of that chart as turning into a smile.”

This year’s crop of Christmas ads is a case in point. There’s been a plethora of brands that want to give us the gift of laughter - even those that have, in recent years, preferred to create festive weepies. So John Lewis has gone a bit absurdist with a Mighty Boosh-esque singing venus fly trap and McDonald’s has eschewed the bittersweet awkward tween stories for something that’s much broader and convivial and leans into their Golden Arches strategy. ‘Fancy a McDonald’s this Christmas’ has entered the top 2% of the UK’s funniest ads, making over a quarter of Brits laugh out loud. Even the sentimental Amazon ad has gentle humour at its core.

Lynne reflects on the sheer variety of comic approaches in this year’s festive funnies. “It’s quite diverse. If you look at McDonald’s, people are laughing at themselves,” says Lynne, pondering trends within the humour. “I think it’s really interesting how McDonald’s and M&S had a very similar insight because it was about traditions, that there are things we go along with at Christmas because it’s what we do but we don’t enjoy them that much. McDonald’s executed it in a really funny way and M&S was very polarising.”

“If you look at TK Maxx, where you’ve got the alpaca striding out. It’s the humour of seeing the animals dressed in clothes and how funny they look. ALDI, of course, has got lots of little bits of innuendo. I think there’s a whole range of different types of humour. Even Duracell - it’s cute, it’s funny, the reindeer’s nose comes down. I have quite a childish taste in humour so those kinds of things really appeal to me,” she laughs.

This comedic crescendo has been a long time coming. This time last year, the desperate need to lighten up was a key theme that emerged when Little Black Book asked industry figures what they wanted to see in 2023 . Purpose-driven ads and so-called ‘sadvertising’ have dominated discourse and led the way at industry award shows.

Humour often varies from culture to culture so it can be hard for properly funny local ads to be recognised by the industry at a global level. The fact that Kantar’s findings coincide with Cannes Lions launching a new humour category suggests that something much bigger is happening.

What’s particularly heartening about Kantar’s research is that not only are brands trying to be funnier - they’re pretty successful with it. In 2022, people rated humour in the top 40% of ads tested, while in 2023, funny ads, on average, were landing in the top 15% of ads tested.

“The ads are not only trying to be more lighthearted, they’re landing that really well, which is great to see. We can see people talking about that in the research that we do,” says Lynne. She explains that in their qualitative research that sits alongside the numbers, people are using words like ‘hilarious’ when describing the commercials they’re being shown. “It’s not just a slight smile with some of these ads - they’re genuinely making people laugh!”

So how did we lose our sense of humour to begin with? As far as brands were concerned, covid-19 was no laughing matter - though ordinary people who turned to memes and gallows humour to make sense of the mind-boggling global pandemic might disagree. Most marketers turned to solemnity to show empathy and reflect the seriousness of the situation - but now it seems the tide is turning.

“Lots of people have been calling for humour to come back. I think, especially, during covid, we saw the wave of sad advertising. Brands were trying to show up and show that they understood how people were feeling, but that just made people feel more depressed. Whereas, actually, brands that were brave enough to still use a little bit of humour at that time - like you had ALDI’s ad during covid and they still had Kevin appear at the end, and people really appreciated that. We could hear it in how they talked about the ad. In challenging times - if you go back to the war and things like that - entertainment was key. It was a relief from life’s difficulties and it took people to a better place. Similarly, I think the light relief and sheer dopamine release that you get from humour is really appreciated.”

Of course, deployed correctly, humour can make difficult, awkward or taboo topics easier to talk about and there’s no reason to consider purpose and humour to be mutually exclusive approaches. Lynne points to the ‘Period Dramas’ campaign from Here We Flo as an example of a funny ad that Kantar’s research has found to be highly effective. 

As any writer or director will tell you, comedy is one of the hardest genres to get right - and that’s especially true when it comes to dealing with tricky subjects. The slightest tweak in timing or wording can make the difference between a joke that gets us giggling and one that raises groans. “Of course, it's important to research the consumer response and make sure that you're landing the joke well, and because you can have a great insight, you can have a great joke, but if people don't interpret it the way you intended, then you can get that negative response,” says Lynne.

Getting that laugh isn’t always easy - and of course with greater sensitivity to issues around mental health and making people or groups the butt of jokes, marketers may still prefer to shy away from humour entirely. But, advises Lynne, there are many flavours of humour.

“Joke telling can feel risky, because when you’re telling jokes that can mean the joke is at someone’s expense, but actually humour doesn’t have to be like that,” she says. “Humour comes in lots of different shapes and forms. So I think when you look at it in its breadth, it’s a really rich territory.”

Another risk that makes marketers wary of humour is the myth that it is somehow cheap and makes the brand look cheap. But, again, it’s all in the execution - and Lynne says in Kantar’s creative effectiveness awards there are many examples of brands using humour to their strategic benefit.

“I think people need to stop taking the mickey out of humour. I think that’s part of what we’re seeing. Sometimes people feel that if they use humour, then that might undermine people’s quality perceptions, because if I’m going to show up and be a brand that’s taken seriously, and have good quality credentials and performance, then I’ve got to communicate in a way that’s serious. Well, that’s nonsense. You only need to look at Yorkshire Tea and their history, they’ve used humour brilliantly,” says Lynne, who points out that the British tea brand has been able to drive sales, becoming Britain’s top-selling tea brand, and doing so at a premium price point, thanks to its smart use of humour.

In fact, humour can bolster a brand’s reputation. Looking at the work that the Advertising Association has done into consumer trust in advertising, creating something that benefits people, whether it’s entertaining or genuinely informative, can help to rebuild trust.

Lynne points out that funny advertising can also help lodge messages in our minds. “Being funny doesn’t mean you compromise on the effectiveness of your advertising. Actually, it supports it. And that’s not just in terms of it being entertaining, it’s in terms of effectiveness overall. If you look at education, teachers know that when they use humour, people learn better. So you get this dopamine reward from it, and that’s important in your long term memory and also in your motivation. It’s not just entertaining, actually people remember funny things for longer.”

While Kantar’s research shows that brands are, finally, starting to appreciate the benefits of a belly laugh, there’s still a lot of as yet untapped opportunity. In the early 2000s, 66% of ads were designed to be funny, and we’re still a long way from there. Moreover, says Lynne, while we’re seeing a surge in television ads, comedy is used significantly less in digital spaces. She suggests that brands think about the humanity of humour in their customer experiences. 

Time will tell if 2024 will see more brands lighten up and embrace the power of humour. In the meantime, though, at least those of us who are looking for a laugh don’t need to rely on the meagre offerings of Christmas cracker jokes - we can enjoy the festive ads instead.