Vim's Whim : Humour gone Sour?

The recent campaign from Vim featuring a black men’s variant might have been intended as a piece of humour, but it is possible that consumers didn’t find it funny. Unilever is not known for the most creative advertising in the world and perhaps this was an attempt to get creative??Difficult to say.

?There is no doubt that humourous advertising attracts attention and entertains consumers. Parody is one of the effective components of an advertising idea.?But a lot depends on how it is treated.?For example, in the Fevicol ads of yore, the humour was intended to make people see the virtue of the product which was permanent adhesion.?This validated the humour in the ad.

But humour is a difficult subject even in the movies or theatre, so humour badly executed in an advertisement could have some disastrous effects on the brand. For example, failed humour could offend consumers, which has perhaps happened in the Vim case. Telling consumers that this was not a real product and was intended to change male attitudes to doing the dishes, does not seem to have worked and in fact might have offended many men.?Responses on twitter ranged from “Just when you thought you had seen every marketing gimmick - this happens Vim, are you okay?” to “ Sweet mother of God! Someone needs to really @the agency and people…. I wanna know the thinking behind the concept.?"

But there is another reason why one has to be careful with humour in advertising.?Research has shown that badly executed humour in advertising could have decreasing brand attitudes which are unfavourable even if it amuses consumers.?Cultivating favourable brand attitudes is important because it influences consideration and purchasing behaviour. Failing to be funny can backfire by eliciting negative feelings which may have well happened with the Vim ad.?

There is also reason to believe that perhaps the ad missed its intended target. While there is every reason for the emancipated male to do a part of the housework a thought which was executed so tastefully in the famous?Ariel ads whose main message was ‘Share the Load’,?the males in a Vim household may in fact be insulted that they are now being asked to do the dishes.?So while the intention was laudable, the effect might not necessarily have been so.

Milind Soman also may not be the ideal spokeperson for the Vim man.?After all he is known for running nude on a Goan beach which might not necessarily appeal to the middle class morals of the Vim man, in fact it is quite likely that he would be offended by such behaviour.?I keep saying Vim man, but I really hope that there really is one.?

But digital campaigns always have a way out even if they didn’t really work for the brand.?The ad it seems might have gone viral which is every marketers dream, so how does it really matter if it worked?