No Laughing Matter at the IPA 44 Club
The latest IPA 44 Club event, held last night at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), attempted to break the pessimistic notion that “Advertising Isn’t Funny”.
The talk was presented by the co-founders of comedy production agency Hoot – James Rawlings, Ben Bond and Ben Thompson – all award-winning comedians. And, says XX of Publicis, they did so in style.
The 44 Club audience was shown examples including the Kenny Powers K-Swiss campaign and therealgeorgeosbourne, (both well worth a YouTube). We were also joined, via video link, by comic Angelos Epithemiou of Shooting Stars fame, who offered his musings on brands and comedy in advertising.
His view that falling over really was the best way to get a laugh, got a laugh, whilst grumblings about a certain supermarket not stocking his DVD – despite his use of plastic bags in his shows, prompted us to think that any media teams out there might consider this a new platform!
The trio had advice for anyone in the process of developing a comedy ad: remember that if an idea was funny when it was first presented, it still will be to anyone else who sees it for the first time, even if after hearing the gag more than 50 times you would rather burn it on a metaphorical bonfire. So trust your first instinct.
The team also praised Twitter as a platform for trying and testing tonality before launching whole-heartedly into creating a brand personality.
Annie Chisholm
