“The humour is in decline and we have to face the fact that there is a global raise in unhappiness”. The chief of BBDO Worldwide Andrew Robertson started his presentation at Cannes Lions with rather grim statement. Pulling out the graphs produced by Oracle, Cantor UK, he continued: “Our world has been getting less and less humourful with particular dips in global recession and pandemic.” The same trend can be seen at Cannes Lions too – the house of creativity. “In 2022, only one in ten Grand Prix winners used humour. And that’s a problem”, according to Robertson, a chief of the world’s most awarded creative agency network for 14 years in a row.

Here are the takeaways from the talk, delivered impeccably and with a pinch of humour.

The customer surveys show that humour is in demand as much as ever.

• Humour is more memorable – 90% of respondents
• More distinctive – 11% increase in Kantar Link distinctiveness measurement.
• More recommended – 80% are more likely to recommend a funny brand
• More desirable – 91% say they want brands to be funny. 
• More persuasive – 72% would choose humorous brand over competition
• 100% more humorous

Yet only 20% of campaigns use humour.  

Funny is the key for viral

Funny ads are shared more and enjoyed more.

• Orbit advert 250 Million impressions in one week. 95% positive sentiment.

• Humour is a fantastic way to say sorry. It’s hard to be angry at someone who makes you laugh. KFC ran out of chicken 219 Million impressions, 279 Million earned impressions.

• Humour is extremely good for speaking about sensitive and taboo topics. Fishy advert (BV treatment).

There is a belief that humour shouldn’t be used in certain topics. Robertson is not so sure about it. “The humour is appropriate everywhere and even in the stressful times.” You don’t need to be a rocket scientist, just remember the flood of Joe Exotic memes flooding your WhatsApps all day long.

Even Gen Z want funny content according to Robertson – 76% say they want to see comedy content on TikTok. 94% say they are more likely to remember funny ads – that’s more than any other generation. So if you want to do Gen Z, you got to be fun.

Ending his speech with a suggestion to introduce new Lion for the best use of humour, Roberts received a raucous applause.