Selling through entertaining: The effect of humour in television advertising in Hong Kong

Abstract

Considerable research evidence has indicated that humour has a positive impact on attention but no consensus is reached with regard to the persuasive effect of humour in advertising. Two hundred and fifty-four university students were recruited to watch five television commercials and respond to a structured questionnaire in this study. Results show that humour secures attention getting while disrupts message processing. Humour enhances message persuasiveness when the moderating variable need for cognition (NFC) is controlled. Participants with low NFC are easier to be persuaded by humorous commercials than participants with high NFC do. It is also found that repeated exposure to the same humorous commercial does not harm its persuasive effect. Male audiences regard humorous commercials as more persuasive while female audiences are the opposite. The study provides guidelines for advertisers/advertising practitioners who would like to employ humour in their communication at the same time it draws ethical concerns towards the increased application of entertainment-coated persuasion.

Keywords:

• humour advertising
• attention
• persuasion
• need for cognition
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a dissertation completed at Hong Kong Baptist University. The author would like to thank her supervisor Prof. Ringo Ma, the anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their constructive comments and suggestions on previous versions of this article.