If you’re a serious brand marketing a serious product or service, it’s tough to create an appealing advertisement that turns heads and actually engages people.
Express shipping services, hand soaps and concrete production are not the most entertaining of industries. But even those seemingly mundane niches can be conveyed in a manner that’s lighthearted and witty: all it takes is a little creativity.
What we have here are a slew of ordinary products and services that have been spun into clever advertisements. There’s nothing like some comic wit to revitalize a banal brand’s ad agenda.
Lifebuoy is a hand soap brand, proclaiming “You eat what you touch” as the family pet curls up on the cutting board.
RSPCA is an animal charity organization, and the tagline reads “Show us some love, we’ll return the favour”.
Ripolin is a paint company, and despite that they seem to have misspelled the word “which”, the ad is priceless.
Fibermesh is a concrete fiber producer that’s known for their powerful product – too powerful for even the most venerable karate masters to penetrate.
Sedex is an express courier service that touts their ridiculously fast delivery (so fast that you can start your activity in anticipation of the package’s imminent arrival).
The Ad Council (responsible for national public service announcements in the US) has done several well-executed humorous ads as well, despite the array of somber subjects they cover.
Here’s one for overcoming obesity and its negative health effects.
This PSA for colon cancer prevention took a humorous turn with the help of Andy Richter and a personified polyp.
Foiling the common fears and misconceptions of pet adoption, this ad explains itself with the curt thoughts of an abandoned dog.
Arena is a specialty sports apparel company that markets a campaign known as Water Instinct.
Pedigree makes dog food and treats, and encourages us to reward our pets for those sometimes-undesirable chores they do for us.
Tesa is a high-performance tape manufacturer. The witty (and potentially touchy) tagline for this one is “The world needs a tape like this”.
Minery is a foot care cream that gives new meaning to the phrase “smooth as a baby’s bottom”.
Timotei is a hair care brand that extensively speaks to their “natural” styling.
TNT is another express delivery service. It’s difficult to read, but this ad boasts that “We treat every delivery like an emergency”.
Talcid is an antacid medication that comforts our fears of certain foods in a humorous fashion.
Bajaj is a heating appliance manufacturer whose incredibly effective products make life hard for this fish.
Google is, of course, the largest search engine in the world. They’re responsible for delivering accurate and virtually endless knowledge to us at the touch of a button. But for this ad they’ve played off the common phenomenon of commonly misspelled search queries and their helpful ability to recommend search terms.
There are a multitude of witty ads out there, and many have been successfully marketed by serious brands. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments and add to the inspiration!