Journal of Consumer Research, Inc.

Humor in Television Advertising: A MomenttoMoment Analysis Author(s): JosephineL.C.M.Woltman Elpers, AsheshMukherjee, and WayneD.Hoyer Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 31, No. 3 (December 2004), pp. 592-598 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/425094 . Accessed: 24/02/2014 07:04
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Humor in Television Advertising: A Moment-toMoment Analysis

JOSEPHINE L. C. M. WOLTMAN ELPERS ASHESH MUKHERJEE WAYNE D. HOYER*
Although humor represents a critical advertising technique around the world, previous research has investigated only single point, retrospectively measured antecedents of perceived humor. Drawing on recent research indicating that momentto-moment (MTM) responses have a signicant effect on ad evaluations, we perform a MTM analysis of humor in television advertising. Results indicate that a dynamic transformation of surprise into humor lies at the heart of humor and that key features of the MTM surprise and MTM humor traces drive overall perceptions of humor. We discuss the theoretical implications of these ndings and outline promising directions for future research.

umor is one of the most widely used techniques in advertising around the world, with about one out of every ve television ads containing humorous appeals ( Alden, Hoyer, and Lee 1993; Weinberger and Spotts 1989). However, few studies on this topic have addressed the fact that ads attempting humor vary dramatically in the level of humor they actually evoke in the target audience (Speck 1991). While some ads are spectacularly successful at raising a laugh, others may fail to do so. Such variation in perceived humor is likely to have important consequences for downstream variables of interest to marketers such as message credibility, recall, and attitude toward the ad and brand (Chattopadhyay and Basu 1990; Shimp 1997; Weinberger and Gulas 1992). Further, past research on humor in advertising has typically used simple print manipulations of

*Josephine L. C. M. Woltman Elpers is marketing and research director at Verify Deutschland GmbH, Venloerstrasse 2527, 5062 Ko ln, Germany (josephine.elpers@verify.nl). This article is based on research performed as part of the Ph.D. project of the rst author at the Department of Marketing and Marketing Research, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Ashesh Mukherjee is an associate professor at the Faculty of Management, McGill University, 1001 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1G5, Canada (ashesh.mukherjee@mcgill.ca) . Wayne D. Hoyer is the James L. Bayless/W. S. Farish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise, Department of Marketing, McCombs School of Business, One University Station, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 (wayne.hoyer@mccombs.utexas.edu). Financial support for this research project was provided by the Netherlands America Commission for Educational Exchange (NACEE), the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), the Center for Customer Insight (McCombs School), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. All authors contributed equally, and the order of authorship was determined by a random draw. Correspondence concerning this article may be addressed to any of the authors.The authors thank Sicco Huisman, Billy Zahn, and Marianna Demori for their help in data collection.

humor (e.g., cartoon drawings) in which the humorous ads (although statistically different from low humor ads) are only mildly amusing at best. These manipulations of humor, although valid from the point of view of experimental control, do not throw much light on the processes underlying more complex audiovisual forms of humor used in television advertising. They also do not provide much insight into the workings of really funny ads, which are the ones likely to have signicant effects on consumer-level outcomes in the real world. Consequently, researchers have recently begun building theory to explain how different elements of advertising content affect the level of perceived humor. In particular, Alden, Mukherjee, and Hoyer (1999, 2000) have proposed a twostage model of humor in television advertising. In the rst stage of this model, the incongruity of the situation depicted in the ad generates feelings of surprise, with higher levels of surprise resulting if the situation is familiar to the audience. Here, incongruity refers to the extent to which ad content differs from generally expected beliefs, attitudes, and/or behaviors. Feelings of surprise are subsequently transformed into humor in the second stage of the model, when the incongruity is easily resolved, and when the ad is high in playfulness and warmth. It is worth noting that previous tests of the Alden et al. (2000) model have used static, retrospectively measured predictors of perceived humor. For example, in the two studies reported by Alden et al. (2000), study participants provided overall judgments of variables such as surprise and humor at the end of each ad. These measures were then subjected to correlation analysis to validate the proposed model of humor. However, a more complete test of the Alden et al. (2000) model, which posits that surprise is dynamically transformed into humor, would re592
2004 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. Vol. 31 December 2004 All rights reserved. 0093-5301/2004/3103-0011$10.00

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MOMENT-TO-MOMENT ANALYSIS OF HUMOR

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quire analysis of individuals moment-to-moment (henceforth MTM) responses on variables such as surprise and humor. Such an MTM analysis of humor would also add to recent research investigating other MTM responses to advertising, such as general affective reactions, perceived entertainment value, and perceived information value (e.g., Baumgartner, Sujan, and Padgett 1997; Woltman Elpers, Wedel, and Pieters 2003). Thus, the purpose of the current research is to conduct a dynamic, MTM analysis of humor in television advertising. Building on the model proposed by Alden et al. (2000) and on research related to the aggregation of MTM affective responses into overall evaluations (e.g., Baumgartner et al. 1997), we develop and test hypotheses about the effects of two MTM variables, namely, MTM surprise and MTM humor, on overall perceived humor. The results make a contribution to existing research by providing a deeper understanding of the process underlying the generation of humor in advertising, especially in terms of the key dynamic variables of MTM surprise and MTM humor.

of overall humor is that the peak of MTM surprise precedes the peak of MTM humor. If surprise is dynamically transformed into humor during the course of humorous ads, then the later the peak of MTM surprise in an ad, the higher should be the peak of MTM humor. The longer the time period between the start of the ad and the point of resolution of the incongruity (i.e., the peak of surprise), the longer the window of opportunity for surprise to be transformed into humor. As a result, drawing out the time before the peak of MTM surprise should increase the amount of time during which surprise is transformed into humor, leading to a higher peak of MTM humor. This proposition is consistent with a large body of research on event schemas and story structures (e.g., Brewer and Lichtenstein 1981) suggesting that storylines that build up suspense over an extended period of time are preferred to those that have a shorter suspense span. Similarly, Loewenstein (1987) and Loewenstein and Prelec (1993) have found that people prefer delayed over instant gratication when faced with a bounded sequence of events. The preceding arguments are summarized as follows: H2: The later the peak of MTM surprise in the ad, the higher the peak of MTM humor.

THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT
The contrast resolution theory of humor suggests that a moment-to-moment transformation of surprise into humor is the central process underlying this phenomenon (Alden et al. 2000; Raskin 1985). Humorous episodes are said to rst generate surprise by the presence of incongruous situations. Surprise is then converted into humor when incongruities are resolved in a playful context. Research in nonadvertising contexts using verbal humor such as jokes, puns, and satire also supports the notion that both surprise and humor are generated during the course of humorous episodes ( Herzog and Larwin 1988; Wyer and Collins 1992). Given the importance of the dynamic transformation process from surprise to humor, the key proposition of the present research is that surprise and humor are likely to vary in an MTM manner during the course of humorous advertising.

MTM Humor and Overall Humor

The previous hypotheses examined the process underlying the transformation of MTM surprise into MTM humor, which in turn inuences the level of overall perceived humor. An implicit assumption in the earlier discussion was that MTM humor and overall humor have a one-to-one relationship, whereby all MTM humor responses during the course of the ad are mentally summed into an overall humor rating. However, research on extended hedonic sequences suggests that certain salient features of the MTM trace, such as the peak, nal moment, and linear trend, may be more important in shaping overall evaluations. Here, peak refers to the highest level, nal moment refers to the ending level, and linear trend refers to the rst order slope of the MTM trace (Baumgartner et al. 1997; Loewenstein and Prelec 1993; Ross and Simonson 1991; Varey and Kahneman 1992). For example, Ross and Simonson (1991) showed that events that end on a happy note (i.e., with high peak and nal moment) are evaluated more favorably than those that do not, even if the latter sequence generates more positive feelings during its early stages. Further, individuals have been shown to prefer an increasing (over decreasing) trend in wages (Loewenstein and Sicherman 1991) and an increasing (over decreasing) trend in academic performance over time (Hsee and Abelson 1991). More directly relevant to the current research, Baumgartner and associates (1997) found that the peak, nal moment, and positive linear trend of MTM affective responses (i.e., momentary like/dislike reactions) had a signicant effect on overall ad liking. Further, they found that peaks and nal moments had a greater impact on overall ad liking than

MTM Surprise, MTM Humor, and Overall Humor

Although the contrast resolution theory suggests that a MTM transformation of surprise into humor is the core process underlying humor, previous static tests of this theory have not veried the dynamic transformation of surprise into humor during the course of the ad (e.g., Alden et al. 2000). If the dynamic surprise-humor transformation proceeds from surprise to humor, then the peak of the MTM surprise trace should precede the peak of the MTM humor trace in the high overall humor ads, where peak refers to the highest level of the MTM trace. Such precedence of the peak of MTM surprise, compared to the peak of MTM humor, is unlikely to be observed in low humor ads since the dynamic surprise-humor transformation is less likely to occur in low humor ads. These arguments are summarized as follows: H1: A characteristic of ads that generate high levels

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the sum of momentary MTM affective responses to the ad. In the present case, humor is a more complex affective reaction than the simple like/dislike affect examined by Baumgartner and associates (1997), since humor involves a two-stage appraisal of stimuli. Hence, it is not clear if the effects of peak, nal moment, and linear trend obtained by Baumgartner and associates (1997) for general like/dislike MTM affect will also emerge in the case of MTM humor. We investigate this issue by advancing the following hypotheses, which are based on the results of Baumgartner and associates (1997): H3: The higher the peak/nal moment of MTM humor, the higher the level of overall humor. H4: The peak/nal moment of MTM humor predicts the level of overall humor better than the sum of individual MTM humor responses. H5: The greater the magnitude of the positive linear trend in MTM humor, the higher the level of overall humor.

corded off the air in Canada. A subset of ads featuring positive affective cues such as pleasant scenery, catchy music, and attractive models was rst identied. Then, in a pretest, 15 student participants rated this subset of ads on a dichotomous scale of intended humor (intended/not intended to be funny) and a single-item, three-point scale of positive affect toward the ad (dislike a lot/neither like nor dislike/ like a lot). Fifteen ads that were classied as nonintended humor and high positive affect were randomly chosen for use in the study. The total set of 30 stimuli ads represented a range of product categories including soft drinks, beer, music, credit cards, cars, sauces, candy bars, perfumes, hotels, lms, cameras, sport shoes, condoms, balls, crackers, mobile phones, and clothes.

Procedure
Data was collected from undergraduate students at a major university in the southwestern United States. MTM surprise and MTM humor were measured from two separate groups of 25 undergraduate student participants (see Larsen and Fredrickson 1999). MTM measures were assessed using a computer-based procedure validated by Baumgartner and associates (1997; see also Woltman Elpers et al. 2003). This procedure allowed participants to record their MTM responses to the stimuli ads, using a mouse, on a continuous scale (0600), anchored by not surprising at all/0 to very surprising/600 (for MTM surprise) and not funny at all/ 0 to very funny/600 (for MTM humor). Participants watched the stimuli ads on a large-screen TV in two different random orders to guard against order effects. In order to minimize fatigue, the ads were shown in sets of ten, with a 5-min. break in between sets. To promote uency in responding to the ads, participants were rst given an opportunity to practice with two starter ads before commencing their MTM responses to the stimuli ads. The MTM data collection took less than an hour to complete, and academic credit was given for participation. Two other groups of 25 student participants from the same university provided overall assessments of the 30 ads. One group provided overall assessments of humor using a sevenpoint scale of overall humor (not at all/very funny, alpha p .94). The other group provided overall assessments of ad attitude (dislike/like the ad a lot, alpha p .85), ad familiarity (very unfamiliar/familiar ad, alpha p .79), and brand familiarity (very unfamiliar/familiar brand, alpha p .98). The ads were shown on the same large-screen TV in two random orders, and questions were asked on the computer screen immediately after each commercial. This data collection also took less than an hour, and academic credit was given for participation.

STUDY Stimuli
A sample of 30 ads was used as stimuli in this study. Fifteen of these ads were humorous in intent, while the other fteen ads generated positive affect but were not intended to be funny. Two major criteria were used to select the stimulus ads. First, to ensure variance in the focal variable of humor, it was considered important to select ads that spanned the entire range of perceived humor from low to high. Second, to ensure that familiarity with the ad did not confound humor ratings, it was also considered important to select ads that were relatively unfamiliar to the audience. These criteria were met by selecting ads through a twostage stratied sampling process. In the rst stage, a number of ads that were potentially high on humor were selected from a commercially available collection of English-language ads from around the world (www.adlms.com). Some of these ads were extremely funny, more so than regular ads seen on network television. Further, none of these ads had been aired in commercial broadcasts in the United States, thus making it unlikely that participants in the present study would be familiar with them. Next, a set of intendedhumor ads that were potentially high or medium on humor was selected from a pool of ads recorded off the air in Canada, which made it unlikely that the American participants in the study would have seen them. In a pretest, 15 student participants rated the above ads on a single item, three-point scale of perceived humor (not at all/somewhat/ very funny). Based on their responses, 15 ads were randomly chosen such that perceived humor varied from medium (somewhat funny) to high (very funny). A second set of 15 nonintended humor but positive affect ads was selected by further reviewing the pool of ads re-

Results
Consistent with previous research on MTM responses to advertising (e.g., Baumgartner et al. 1997; VandenAbeele and MacLachlan 1994), a net MTM trace for each ad was constructed by averaging MTM responses across respon-

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MOMENT-TO-MOMENT ANALYSIS OF HUMOR

TABLE 1 TIME POINTS OF THE PEAKS OF MTM SURPRISE AND MTM HUMOR Time at which peak in MTM surprise occurs Time at which peak in MTM humor occurs

595

Ad identication Humorous ads: 1 2 3 4 7 8 11 16 18 19 20 22 24 27 30 Nonhumorous ads: 5 6 9 10 12 13 14 15 17 21 23 25 26 28 29

Overall humor rating

Time difference between peaks

4.68 5.24 4.8 5.32 5.16 4.52 5.84 6.56 4.8 4.56 5.08 5.36 5.36 5.16 5.12 3.8 1.84 4.24 4.04 2.88 4.24 4.12 4.12 3.44 4.32 4.32 2.6 3.48 2.52 3.48

40 61 28 43 39 43 35 31 35 16 57 51 41 56 31 39 26 51 23 47 31 26 30 27 24 27 22 12 40 52

44 68 28 59 39 41 35 34 36 17 56 57 41 59 31 42 7 52 28 42 40 30 29 25 29 28 21 9 11 45

4 7 0 16 0 2 0 3 1 1 1 6 0 3 0 3 19 1 5 5 9 4 1 2 5 1 1 3 29 7

dents and taking the ad as the unit of analysis (all alphas 1 0.90). Conrming the success of the stratied sampling procedure, the humorous ads were considered funnier (M p 5.2 vs. 3.6, t(28) p 6.66, p ! .001) and generated more positive ad attitude (M p 5.1 vs. 4.2, t(28) p 5.19, p ! .001) than the nonhumorous ads. The two groups of ads did not differ on ad familiarity (M p 2.6 vs. 2.1, t(28) p 1.22, p ! .23) or brand familiarity (M p 3.9 vs. 4.3, t(28) p 0.49, p ! .63). The ads scored 2.4 on average on the sevenpoint ad-familiarity scale, which was signicantly less than the midpoint (i.e., 4.0) of the scale (t(29) p 7.72, p !.001), indicating that the test ads were relatively unfamiliar to participants. According to hypothesis 1, the peak in MTM surprise precedes the peak in MTM humor in humorous ads but not in nonhumorous ads. Table 1 shows for each ad the points in time at which the peak in MTM surprise occurs and the points in time at which the peak in MTM humor occurs. As shown in the table, the peak in the MTM surprise trace preceded the peak in the MTM humor trace or occurred simultaneously in 13 out of 15 humorous ads. In contrast, the peak in the MTM surprise trace occurred after the peak

in MTM humor in 8 out of the 15 nonhumorous ads. In addition, the overall humor rating was signicantly higher in ads where the peak of MTM surprise preceded peak of MTM humor (or where the peaks occurred at the same time), compared to ads where this was not the case (M p 4.9 vs. 3.4, t(28) p 4.75, p ! .001).1 These results are supportive of hypothesis 1. Hypothesis 2 posited that the later the peak of MTM surprise, the higher the peak of MTM humor. Consistent with this hypothesis, the correlation between the peak in the MTM humor trace and the time to peak in the MTM surprise trace was found to be signicantly positive (r p .43, t(28) p 2.55, p ! .05). Consistent with hypothesis 3, it was found that the peak (r p .87, t(28) p 9.28, p ! .001) and nal moment (r p .91, t(28) p 11.25, p ! .001) both correlated strongly with the overall humor rating. In support of hy1 Since three of the commercials could be regarded as outliers in terms of time difference between the peak of MTM surprise and the peak of MTM humor, the data were also analyzed without these three data points. The effect was found to be similar after deletion of these ads from the analysis (M p 4.8 vs. 3.7, t(25) p 3.66, p ! .01).

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pothesis 4, the correlation between the peak in MTM humor and overall humor was signicantly greater than the correlation between the sum of the individual humor responses and overall humor (r p .87 vs. .57; t(27) p 5.53, p ! .001; see Steiger 1980). Also consistent with hypothesis 4, the correlation between the nal moment of MTM humor and overall humor was signicantly greater than the correlation between the sum of individual humor responses and overall humor (r p .91 versus .57; t(27) p 7.32, p ! .001). Finally, consistent with hypothesis 5, the linear trend of MTM humor was positively correlated with the overall humor rating (r p .77, t(28) p 6.41, p ! .001).

GENERAL DISCUSSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Humor is one of the most popular advertising techniques around the world. However, previous research on humor in advertising has focused mostly on downstream effects of humor such as message credibility, recall, and attitude toward the ad and brand (Chattopadhyay and Basu 1990; Weinberger and Gulas 1992). In contrast, we know relatively little about the antecedents of perceived humor, or what makes an ad funny. In this context, the results of the present research make several important contributions to the literature. First, our research provides a more detailed understanding of the mechanism underlying humor through a more complete test of the Alden and associates (1999, 2000) model of humor in television advertising, using dynamic, MTM measures of the central variables of surprise and humor. The results of our study conrm that in order to generate a humorous response, a sequential dynamic transformation that proceeds from surprise to humor must occur. The peak of MTM surprise preceded the peak of MTM humor in virtually all the humorous ads but in relatively few of the nonhumorous ads. Further, the overall humor rating was signicantly higher in ads where MTM surprise preceded MTM humor than it was in ads where they did not. These results provide the rst empirical test of the core process underlying the generation of humor in television advertising. Notably, the stimuli ads used in our research were selected using a stratied sampling approach that captured a full range of humorous ads, from plainly unfunny to hilarious. As a result, the MTM analysis reported in this article is likely to be useful in understanding the mechanics underlying real-world television advertising, including the extremely funny ads that marketers are always attempting to create. Second, the ndings expand our understanding of how structural elements within the ad can increase the effectiveness of humorous ads. For example, examination of the MTM surprise-humor transformation process revealed that a late peak of MTM surprise was an important element in generating a humorous response. This is a novel insight since previous research has been silent on desirable temporal characteristics of surprise generated within humorous ads. In our sample, we found that the average time to peak of MTM

surprise in the top 10 humorous ads was about 35 sec. Given that the average total length of these ads was approximately 40 sec., an emergent empirical guideline for humorous ads would be to engineer a surprise peak approximately 90% into the ad. Further, our results converge with Brewer and Lichtenstein (1981), Loewenstein (1987), and Loewenstein and Prelec (1993), indicating that individuals may have a general tendency to prefer postponement (and savoring) of expected future rewards such as revelation of mystery in a novel or laughter at the end of an ad. Third, our ndings replicate and extend previous research on the integration of general MTM affective responses to advertising (e.g., Baumgartner et al. 1997) in the specic case of humor. Our results indicate that key features of MTM humor, such as peak and nal moment, predict overall retrospective judgments of humor better than the integrated sum of MTM humor responses. These results show that the initial ndings in the work of Baumgartner and associates (1997) for simple ad affect also holds in the case of a more complex affective reaction to advertising, namely, humor. Given this coincidence in the pattern of results, it is possible to speculate that other affective reactions to advertising (e.g., joy, fear, empathy) may also show similar relationships between MTM reactions and overall evaluations. However, further research is needed to test this proposition. More broadly, our results at the subminute commercial level converge with previous research that has found similar reliance on key features, rather than on the sum of all experiences, in hedonic sequences extending over days (e.g., Loewenstein 1987), months (e.g., Dube and Morgan 1996), and years (e.g., Loewenstein and Sicherman 1991). These accumulating ndings indicate that individuals may have a general tendency to rely on summary features of hedonic sequences rather than on the more normatively important sum of individual experiences in the sequence (Fredrickson and Kahneman 1993; Redelmeier and Kahneman 1996; Varey and Kahneman 1992). The Alden and associates (1999, 2000) model implies that the transformation of MTM surprise to MTM humor, and therefore the level of overall perceived humor, is moderated by ease of resolution, playfulness, and warmth of the ad. Hence, future research should experimentally investigate the moderating effects of ease of resolution, warmth, and playfulness at the MTM level. Ongoing research by the current authors has taken a rst step in this direction by manipulating ease of resolution through the level of cognitive load, operationalized by a digit-memorization task (e.g., Shiv and Fedorikhin 1999; Swann, Hixon, and SteinSeroussi 1990). Specically, participants in a pilot study were asked either to keep an eight-digit number in memory while viewing the test ads (i.e., low ease of resolution) or to view the test ads without any memorization task (i.e., high ease of resolution). Consistent with the notion that ease of resolution facilitates the transformation of surprise into humor, hypotheses 1 and 2, which are predicated on the successful transformation of MTM surprise into MTM humor, were supported when ease of resolution was high but

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not when ease of resolution was low. Similarly, it was found that an index of the surprise-humor transformation, namely the correlation between peak of MTM surprise and peak of MTM humor, was greater in the high ease of resolution condition than it was in the low ease of resolution condition. Future research should extend this line of investigation by examining the moderating roles of playfulness and warmth through manipulations of these variables in the ad context or ad content. In addition, future research can model the effects of multiple antecedents of humor (e.g., surprise, ease of resolution, playfulness) using a regression approach, which would allow researchers to isolate the partial and interactive effects of these antecedents on perceived humor. The goal of the present research was to systematically investigate the process underlying the generation of humor in advertising. Hence, participants in our study were instructed to watch the stimuli ads in their entirety while either providing their MTM responses during the ads or their overall evaluations at the end of the ads. However, when consumers watch advertising in the real world, they have the option of switching the channel during the course of the ad if the ad does not appeal to them. Thus, to be effective, realworld humorous ads may need to introduce a playfulness signal relatively early in the ad, so that viewers are induced to watch the entire ad. Recent research (Woltman Elpers et al. 2003) has used MTM measures of ad entertainment value and ad informativeness to predict when viewers are likely to discontinue watching television advertising in general. Building on this research, future studies should investigate determinants of viewer switch-out in the case of humorous ads, including factors such as the point of introduction of the playfulness signal and the viewers level of involvement with the brand. In the present research, we investigated the effects of MTM responses on overall humor and showed that higher overall humor scores were related to a more positive attitude toward the ad. However, ads that have a high score on overall perceived humor or attitude toward the ad are not necessarily effective in terms of recall, recognition, claim credibility, brand attitude, or choice (Weinberger and Campbell 1991). Thus, future research should investigate the effect of MTM humor on key downstream variables, such as the credibility of brand claims, brand memory, and brand attitudes. Future research should also investigate moderators of MTM effects on downstream variables such as the relevance of humor to brand benets, expectations of humor for the brand/product category, and the time point of introduction of brand information in the ad (see Chattopadhyay and Basu 1990; Howard and Barry 1994). Finally, in the current research, we do not provide any execution guidelines for the nature of scenes that can generate high levels of humor. Following the procedure used by VandenAbeele and MacLachlan (1994), future research could content analyze scenes in ads where MTM humor reaches its peak/nal moment. Such analysis would complement the MTM pattern results reported in this article and provide advertisers with concrete

ad design strategies to increase the level of overall perceived humor. [Dawn Iacobucci served as editor and Durairaj Maheswaran served as associate editor for this article.]

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