Business Humor

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Business Humor

• by Don L. F. Nilsen and
• Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Business Trends
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Creative Advertising
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• Toilet paper Advertisement
• https//www.youtube.com/embed/V_gOZDWQj3Q?rel0

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More Creative Advertising
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This finger on a statue is pointing to a
particular hotel in Stockholm, Sweden
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Second Hand Store
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Fed Ex Arrowsin English and in Arabic
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The Internal Revenue Service
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Bob Mankoffs New Yorker Business Humor
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• CREATIVE HONDA AD
• https//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Dxy4n0UT82o
  ?rel0

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Two Business Models
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Spaghetti Factory Explain why they are
successful.
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Business Symbolism
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Bad Jobs!
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BUSINESSES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR NEW APPROACHES

• An Office at Google

• They find ways to make their employees WANT to
  come to work.
• Offices should be fun to look at and to work in.
• But theres more to it than that.

• Humor consultant John Morreall advises businesses
  on how to make employees like to come to work.
  
• It is fine to decorate an office or pin up
  cartoons, but really, it i much more complex than
  that.

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MOTIVATION PROFIT VS. PURPOSE LEVELING THE
HIERARCHY (e.g. Internet, Wikipedia, Skype,
Facebook, Google, Southwest)

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vu6XAPnuFjJcfeature
  relmfu

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Businesses which encourage humor also

• Take initiative and risks.
• Do not worry about making mistakes.
• Spend energy on solutions.
• Shoot for total quality.
• Focus on opportunities.

• Do not worry about breaking things.
• Try easier, not harder.
• Stay calm.
• Take responsibility.
• Experiment.
• Smile.
• Have fun.

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To Accomplish These Goals, Companies

• Flatten the organization by reducing levels of
  management.
• Allow workers more discretion in making
  decisions.
• Foster creative thinking.
• Accept employee attitudes, emotions, and
  suggestions.
• Encourage teamwork and collaboration.

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Administrators Views of Humor-in-Business

• A sense of humor makes businesses more creative,
  less rigid, and more willing to consider and
  embrace new ideas and methods.
• In a survey of 737 CEOs, 98 said that humor was
  important in the conduct of business.
• They therefore gave preference to people with a
  sense of humor.
• Soft skills are better predictors of success in
  management than are hard skills.

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More Support for Humor

• The director of human resources at Sun
  Microsystems watches for how long it takes an
  interviewee to laugh or to find something funny
• She says that humor is very important in their
  corporate futures.
• One business created a Grouch Patrol. Whenever
  they see someone with a sour expression, they
  respond by making a bat face.
• This involves pushing the tip of their noses up,
  flicking their tongues in and out, and making a
  high-pitched Eeeee sound.

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When Humor Bubbles-Up from Employees, There
Will of Course Be Lots of Variety.

• Practical jokes weve recently heard
• Putting foam packing bubbles in the cubicles of
  colleagues who are absent.
• A boss going on a three-week trip, and coming
  back to find real sod rolled out in his office
  just to prove that grass does grow under your
  feet.
• A door-decorating contest on the cruise ship
  taking 12 of their outstanding employees to
  Mexico, in which winners had photos of their
  faces superimposed on pictures of jungle animals.
  
• Their slogan was Where the Wild Things Are.

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At our local BEADS GALORE store an employee made
this sign for the window.

• UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE GIVEN TO THE GOBLIN
  KING

• APPARENTLY, SHE WAS TIRED OF REARRANGING THE
  DISPLAYS.

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Other Examples of Workplace Humor

• A debt collector sent out a letter reading, We
  appreciate your business, but, please, give us a
  break. Your account is overdue 10 months. That
  means weve carried you longer than your mother
  did.
• A business manager, who made a really bad
  mistake, wore a T-shirt with a large red
  bulls-eye on it when he went to a meeting about
  the problem.
• A large IBM sales team improved their record 30
  when they formed a pick-up orchestra and recorded
  their sales in fun ways, e.g. by blowing a horn,
  smashing a gong.

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More Examples

• Esther Blumenfield and Lynne Alpern told about
  how four women conspired to get even with a male
  co-worker.
• At meetings, he would routinely drop his pencil
  on the floor so that he could bend down under the
  table and look up their skirts.
• One day before a scheduled meeting, they used a
  magic marker to print on their kneecaps H I
  (space) R A L P H.
• The CEO of a large Canadian bank appears in a
  monthly corporate video shown to all employees
  to discuss recent issues and plans.
• A hand puppet appears and begins poking fun and
  asking him embarrassing questions about recent
  problems.

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• Southwest Airlines Boarding Information
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vTxNrizGdhtYappde
  sktop

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Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shops are successful
because of their quirky humor.
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Cartoonist Scott Adams draws Dilbert cartoons
which explore these business-related themes

• Downsizing
• Heavy work loads
• Micromanagement
• Humiliatingly small cubicles
• Accelerating pace of change
• Corporate gobbledygook
• Management fads
• Cruel bosses
• Annoying colleagues
• Red tape.

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• DILBERT STREAMING
• http//www.youtube.com/user/dilbert

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Adams encourages readers to send in their true
stories. They are often published on the
Business pages of newspapers.

• A management expert at Apple Computer said,
• There are only two kinds of companies, those
  that recognize that theyre just like Dilbert,
  and those that dont know it yet.

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Once employees incorporate humor in their daily
lives, it seems natural to extend humor to their
customers and potential customers.

• Volkswagen introduced the VW Rabbit into the U.S.
  with a 10-second commercial showing two rabbits
  looking into the camera. One is saying, In 1956
  there were only two VWs in America. . .
• At a California traffic school named Lettuce
  Amuse U, the teachers are comedians. They use
  humor to relax students.
• One teacher explains that an extra reason for
  keeping your baby safe in a backward-facing car
  seat is If you get rear-ended, youve got a
  witness.

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Before a three-day-weekend, the State Highway
Department uses humor by putting lighted
warnings on major highways
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• Cheap Flights
• http//www.youtube.com/embed/HPyl2tOaKxM

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The Arizona Republic gives away umbrellas covered
with reprints of their comic strips.Our foot
doctor incorporates the anti-fungus toenail gang
to tell us to turn off our cell phones.
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Connections between Humor and Advertising

• They both require brevity.
• They open peoples minds to enable them to have a
  new viewpoint.
• People get involved in processing the message,
  and therefore remember it longer.

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An Advertisement for Coke (Coca Cola)

• THE HAPPINESS MACHINE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch_popup?vlqT_dPApj9U

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Match the Slogans with the Products

• The beer that made Milwaukee famous
• B. O.
• Say it with flowers
• When it rains, it pours
• Snap, crackle and pop
• Natures spelled backwards
• Good to the Last Drop

• Rice Krispies
• Schlitz Beer
• Serutan
• American Florist Assoc.
• Maxwell Coffee
• Morton Salt
• Lifebuoy Soap

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Creative spelling made these names memorable and
helped with trademark protection.

• Some Early Examples

• More Recent Examples

• Kwik
• ReaLemon
• Reddi-Wip
• Ry-Krisp
• Krispies
• Tastee-Freez
• Toys ? Us
• U-Haul

• Aspercreme
• Dunkin Donuts
• Haggar Expand-o-matic
• Kwik Kopy
• Playskool
• Sominex
• Whataburger
• Wolverine Durashocks

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The Staying Power of Brand NamesNineteen of the
twenty-two companies that owned the leading
American brands in 1925 still own them.

• Kodak in film
• Nabisco in cookies
• Sherwin Williams in paint
• Singer in sewing machines
• Wrigleys in chewing gum

• Campbells in soup
• Del Monte in canned fruit
• Gillette in razors
• Ivory in soap
• Kelloggs in breakfast cereals

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Why did Band-Aid, Kleenex, Scotch Tape, Thermos,
and Zipper become common rather than proper
nouns?

• Think of other examples.

• These are relatively older products.

• These are benchmark products.
• But today advertisers work to protect their
  names so that consumers will look exclusively for
  their products rather than for the imitators.

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Ikea A Good Business Plan
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James Twitchell, used his own kind of humor to
criticize Americas market culture. He wrote

• If Greece gave the world philosophy, Britain
  gave drama, Austria gave music, Germany gave
  politics, and Italy gave art, then America has
  recently contributed mass-produced and
  mass-consumed objects.
• He added that our materialism is a kind of
  spiritualism, but instead of looking at the next
  life for our rewards, we are looking for The
  Nike swoosh, the Polo pony, the Guess? label, and
  the DKNY logo.

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Are we influenced by ads?

• People say that they dont pay much attention to
  ads. They just tune them out, believing they
  have no effect.
• In Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels said that the
  secret of propaganda is that those who are to be
  persuaded should be completely immersed in the
  ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing
  that they are being immersed in it.
• This is where humor comes in. If we are amused
  or laughing at a commercial or a program, our
  defenses are down and we are more likely to want
  to buy whatever is being shown.

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The Power of Advertising
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Inexpensive Fire-Alarm SystemThink about it,
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Products are our friends.

• Alcoholics joke that Jack Daniels is their
  constant lover, while smokers feel that
  cigarettes are their friends. People are twice
  seduced, first by the ads and then by the
  substances.
• Infiniti is an automobile Hydra Zen is a
  moisturizer, and Jesus is a brand of jeans.

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Even ten-year-olds are being turned into COVER
GIRLS.

• Each girl at this weekend celebration in
  Louisville brought her American Girl doll.
• All the girls were photographed and put onto a
  fake cover of a local magazine.
• What parent could resist buying it?

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Commercialization teaches people to be shoppers.

• Women are especially targeted.
• Why do teenage girls shoplift more often than do
  teenage boys?

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Which of the following statements are gender
marked?

• A womans place is in the mall.
• But I cant be overdrawn! I still have some
  checks.
• He who dies with the most toys wins.
• Im spending my grandchildrens inheritance.
• Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all.
• People who say money cant buy happiness, dont
  know where to shop.
• Shop til you drop.
• When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

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We will conclude with miscellaneous Laws of
Business developed over the years

• MURPHYS LAW If anything can go wrong, it
  will, extended to When left to themselves,
  things always go from bad to worse, and If
  anything can go wrong, it will, and even if it
  cant it might.
• OTOOLES LAW Murphy was an optimist.
• DAMON RUNYANS LAW In all human affairs, the
  odds are always six to five against.

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MORE LAWS . . .

• THE PETER PRINCIPLE Each employee tends to rise
  to their level of incompetence.
• PETERS COROLLARY PRINCIPLE When people are
  doing well they will be promoted, which means
  that everyone not upwardly mobile is incompetent.
• MARSHALLS GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM
  Seven-eights of everything cannot be seen.
• PAUL HERBIGS PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC
  TINKERTOYS If it can be understood, its not yet
  finished.

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THE FINAL RULES OF BUSINESS

• RULE NUMBER 1
• The boss is always right.
• RULE NUMBER 2
• If the boss is wrong, see Rule
• Number 1.

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Business Stereotypes
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Secretary and Intern
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Before and After Work
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In Conclusion