Humor in Ads and Fun at Work

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 Michael Kerr

Humor in Ads Shifts Behaviors Once Again

In an effort to keep wooing folks out of their cars and

onto public transit, L.A. Transit has resorted to using

the most effective weapon of all: humor. Ads featuring

“Miss Traffic” that tell transit users to wave and smile

at all the fuming drivers stuck in traffic, and a campaign

to select an official “Ms. Transit,” has helped increase

ridership by 29%, more than half the national average!

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Create an outrageous theme day or promotion for your

customers to not only add fun to their experience (and

yours),but to get free publicity for your company or cause

you are trying to support. For example: Mike Veeck, part

owner of the St. Paul Saints baseball team has generated

massive amounts of publicity with his wacky theme nights,

including a Tonya Harding night (where she dropped by to

sign baseball bats) and an “Enron-theme” night, where paper

shredders were placed at the entrance gates, the attendance

figures were “adjusted” and the players stats on the boards

were all wrong. They even changed the distances on the

outfield fence! And if your name was Arthur or Anderson,

you got in for free. Brilliantly funny AND effective.

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Quote of the Week

“When people laugh together they cease to be young and old,

teacher and pupils, worker and boss. They become a single

group of human beings.” W. Lee Grant

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

You’ve likely seen the footage by now: Some zoo chimps were

given a “monkey-proof” video camera to record their very

own documentary. The footage will air as part of a BBC news

report. Two thoughts. Shouldn’t a monkey-proof camera be

the standard for us higher primates as well? And secondly,

wow, does this ever explain some movies I’ve seen recently. =========================================

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