The Effect of Humor in Obesity-Prevention Messages and Brand Advertising: A Biometric Study

As rising chronic disease becomes a challenge in many countries, marketers can help improve consumers’ quality of life with effective marketing of ideas connected to health and well-being to help combat obesity. This study examines whether learnings from brand advertising could be applied to obesity-prevention advertising. Biometric measures of short-term attention and emotion responses (phasic electrodermal activity and facial activity) to over 30 obesity-prevention and brand ads were collected. While the obesity-prevention ads were more likely to motivate avoidance responses, incorporating humor resulted in positive, approach responses to the obesity-prevention ads in a similar way to the observed brand advertising.