All the copywriting experts warn: Don't use humor in advertising! "People don't buy products from clowns," thundered the grandfather of modern advertising, Claude Hopkins. There's nothing funny about getting somebody to part with their money.

Marketing sage Seth Godin gets to the heart of the issue in a warning not to "clown around" in business:
Getting called a clown is rarely a compliment. Unless you want to join the circus, it's not much of a career goal, either. In addition to the obvious—bad makeup and ill-fitting shoes—all clowns have a surprising amount in common. This is because of a simple truth: Clowns are based on us. They embody what's wrong with human nature, just magnified a bit.

This is good advice to follow. Many people have no sense of humor. You run a very real risk of confusing or, worse—offending—your customers and prospects. So, stick to the straight and narrow: Appeal to benefits, reason-why copy, and, most important, a solid offer. And don't try to be funny.


Now that I've satisfied all the purists, let me say, at the risk of my own reputation as a No-Nonsense Copywriter, it ain't necessarily so.

As Schiller says, "People don't buy from sourpusses."

Uh-oh! Now I've gone and done it. My seventh-grade teacher is for sure going to say "I always knew that Schiller was a wise guy!" But, let me say in my own defense: I'm not advocating being a comedian. I haven't forgotten: "Advertising is salesmanship in print." And, "It's not creative unless it sells."

Yes, you're writing to sell NOT to entertain. But, in catalogs, in direct mail packages, in ads, in print or online, often a light humorous touch adds an element of humanity that engages and involves the reader and actually gives you more credibility.

We're all familiar with funny commercials. But direct marketers have (wisely) shied away from humor. Or at least from outright comedy.

BUT... wouldn't you rather walk into a store where the owner is smiling? It immediately makes you feel more relaxed and appreciated. And more likely to buy.

Friendliness also works online. For all their power on Wall Street, Google honchos still keep up their chummy "couple of geeks from Stanford," image. Who else has error messages that begin "Oops ..." and ever-changing humorous logos? (I have no doubt that this geeky image even helps them smooth over foul-ups like service outages on Gmail and Blogspot!)

I once had an assignment to write an ad for a unique "prayer times" clock that gave the precise time of sunrise and sunset anywhere in the world. The punctilious client wanted me to treat it "strictly kosher": emphasizing its practical religious benefits. I tried to convince him that—even among religious Jews—his zealous precision was not necessarily shared by a wide market. I insisted that this was an executive toy, and the only way to sell it was with some humor.

We finally compromised (usually a bad solution, but thank Heaven, in this case win-win). He got his practical benefits and I got my light touch. The results? The entire inventory was sold out!

Veteran direct marketer Lee Marc Stein offers some sound advice "if you are even thinking of using humor." Here are a few of his absolute "No-nos."
• Punning just does not work in direct response efforts. If the pun is a good one, it immediately brands the copy as "clever," and that is antithetical (and uncle-thetical) to selling. If the pun is awful, it evokes "Oh, no!" instead of "Oh, yes!"
• Do not do say anything or show anything that may demean prospects or customers in any way. You wouldn't do that to your own product and in direct response advertising the prospect is the hero, not the product.
• Do not try to bring humor into the following situations: insurance, loans, health issues, management decisions. Your first reaction may be: "What about the GEICO commercials?" Yes, they're quite humorous, and yes they have an 800 number, but they're more branding than direct response. Take a look at Geico's direct mail: the humor has almost totally disappeared, replaced by tried (and tired) direct mail techniques.

Bottom line: Use humor if—and only if:
• You use it to reinforce and support your basic promise.
• You use it to be friendly, not funny.
• You use it to attract, not to distract.
• You NEVER lose sight of what you're really doing: selling.