TV commercial from 1963, which makes use of humor with the
Ronald McDonald clown character Advertising agencies often use humor as a tool in their creative marketing campaigns. Some psychological studies have attempted to demonstrate the effects of humor and their relationship to empowering advertising persuasion.
Animation is often used in advertisements. The pictures can vary from hand-drawn
traditional animation to computer animation. By using
animated characters, an advertisement may have a certain appeal that is difficult to achieve with actors or mere product displays. Animation also protects the advertisement from changes in fashion that would date it. For this reason, an animated advertisement (or a series of such advertisements) can be long-running, several decades in multiple instances. Notable examples are the series of advertisements for
Kellogg's cereals, starring
Snap, Crackle and Pop and also
Tony the Tiger. The animation is often
combined with real actors. Animated advertisements can achieve lasting popularity. In any popular vote for the most memorable television advertisements in the UK, such as on
ITV or
Channel 4, the top positions in the list invariably include animations, such as the classic
Smash and
Creature Comforts advertisements. Other long-running advertising campaigns catch people by surprise, even tricking the viewer, such as the
Energizer Bunny advertisement series. It started in the late 1980s as a simple comparison advertisement, where a room full of battery-operated bunnies was seen pounding their drums, all slowing down except one, with the Energizer battery. Years later, a revised version of this seminal advertisement had the Energizer bunny escaping the stage and moving on (according to the announcer, he "keeps going and going and going..."). This was followed by what appeared to be another advertisement: viewers were oblivious to the fact that the following "advertisement" was actually a
parody of other well-known advertisements until the Energizer bunny suddenly intrudes on the situation, with the announcer saying "Still going..." (the Energizer Battery Company's way of emphasizing that their battery lasts longer than other leading batteries). This ad campaign lasted for nearly fifteen years. The Energizer Bunny series has itself been imitated by others, via a
Coors Light Beer advertisement, in motion pictures, and by current advertisements by
GEICO Insurance.
Use of popular music Many television advertisements feature songs or melodies ("
jingles") or slogans designed to be striking and memorable, which may remain in the minds of television viewers long after the span of the advertising campaign. Some of these ad jingles or catch-phrases may take on lives of their own, spawning gags that appear in films, television shows, magazines,
comics, or literature. These long-lasting advertising elements may be said to have taken a place in the
pop culture history of the demographic to whom they appeared. An example is the enduring phrase, "
Winston tastes good like a cigarette should", from the eighteen-year advertising campaign for
Winston cigarettes from the 1950s to the 1970s. Variations of this dialogue and direct references to it appeared as long as two decades after the advertising campaign expired. Another example is "
Where's the Beef?", which grew so popular it was used in the
1984 presidential election by
Walter Mondale. Another popular catch-phrase is "
I've fallen and I can't get up", which still appears occasionally, over two decades after its first use. Some advertising agency executives have originated more than one enduring slogan, such as
Mary Wells Lawrence, who is responsible for such famous slogans as "Raise your hand if you're Sure", "
I♥New York" and "Trust the Midas touch." Prior to the 1970s, music in television advertisements was generally limited to
jingles and
incidental music; on some occasions lyrics to a popular song would be changed to create a theme song or a jingle for a particular product. An example of this is found on the recent popular Gocompare.com advert that utilises "Over There", the 1917 song popular with United States soldiers in both World Wars and written by George M. Cohan during World War I. In 1971 the converse occurred when a song written for a
Coca-Cola advertisement was re-recorded as the pop single "
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" by the
New Seekers, and became a hit. Additionally songwriter
Paul Williams composed a piece for a Crocker Bank commercial which he lengthened and
The Carpenters recorded as "
We've Only Just Begun". Some pop and rock songs were re-recorded by cover bands for use in advertisements, but the cost of licensing original recordings for this purpose remained prohibitive in certain countries (including the U.S.) until the late 1980s. The use of previously recorded popular songs in American television advertisements began in earnest in 1985 when
Burger King used the original recording of
Aretha Franklin's song "
Freeway of Love" in a television advertisement for the restaurant. This also occurred in 1987 when
Nike used the original recording of
The Beatles' song "
Revolution" in an advertisement for athletic shoes. Since then, multiple classic popular songs have been used in similar fashion. Songs can be used to concretely illustrate a point about the product being sold (such as
Bob Seger's "
Like a Rock" used for
Chevy trucks), but more often are simply used to associate the good feelings listeners had for the song to the product on display. In some cases the original meaning of the song can be irrelevant or even opposite to the implication of the use in advertising; for example
Iggy Pop's "
Lust for Life", a song about heroin addiction, has been used to advertise
Royal Caribbean International, a cruise ship line. Music-licensing agreements with major artists, especially those that had not previously allowed their recordings to be used for this purpose, such as
Microsoft's use of "
Start Me Up" by
the Rolling Stones and
Apple Inc.'s use of
U2's "
Vertigo" became a source of publicity in themselves. In early instances, songs were often used over the objections of the original artists, who had lost control of their
music publishing, the music of the Beatles being perhaps the most well-known case; more recently artists have actively solicited use of their music in advertisements and songs have gained popularity and sales after being used in advertisements. A famous case is
Levi's company, which has used several
one hit wonders in their advertisements (songs such as
"Inside",
"Spaceman", and "
Flat Beat"). In 2010, research conducted by
PRS for Music revealed that "
Light & Day" by
The Polyphonic Spree is the most performed song in UK TV advertising. Sometimes a controversial reaction has followed the use of some particular song on an advertisement. Often the trouble has been that people do not like the idea of using songs that promote values important for them in advertisements. For example,
Sly and the Family Stone's anti-racism song, "
Everyday People", was used in a car advertisement, which angered some people. Generic
scores for advertisements often feature
clarinets, saxophones, or various
strings (such as the
acoustic/electric guitars and violins) as the primary instruments. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, electronica music was increasingly used as background scores for television advertisements, initially for automobiles, and later for other technological and business products such as computers and financial services. Television advertising has become a popular outlet for new artists to gain an audience for their work, with some advertisements displaying artist and song information onscreen at the beginning or end. ==Advertisement controversies==