Arts & Entertainment, Business, Science & Tech
Is It Funny Enough?
Lesson time 05:25 min
Humor sells. Jeff and Rich explain why and talk about how they’ve incorporated humor into their work, including Logitech’s “Kevin Bacon” commercial and the Budweiser “Weird Without Beer” campaign.
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Topics include: Case Study: Logitech - Kevin Bacon • Case Study: Budweiser - Weird Without Beer
Teach Advertising and Creativity
Advertising icons Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein teach you how to break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] - Things are never funny enough. I'm afraid that that's what we've learned. You know, we're never as funny as we hope to be. We still have our best funny in front of us. - OK. - Clients always say, why do you guys like funny commercials? Like, what's up? And the answer is life is not that pleasant. And so having a funny commercial is really a relief. I mean, people appreciate it. - The best kind of advertising is timeless. You could see it five years from now, and you would still like it. That's like a good story. - It's involving. You know, it pulls you in. And you want to see it again. You want to experience it again. You can't get it out of your head. There are lots of ways of doing that. It can be funny. It can be beautiful. It can be disturbing. The worst kind-- you know what that is. Everybody knows what that is. It insults your intelligence. It repeats things over and over. - Simplistic, dumb. - The kind of thing where you get ads for things that you've already purchased. That's an insult to our integrity as humans, you know. Yeah. - It's so true. And, like, you have no right to go into someone's home, and not entertain them, or give them something of depth. - Yeah. - Insulting is just first level drivel. - Yeah. - Sorry. - No, there's a lot of first level drivel in this business. Because it works. Bad advertising can work as well as good advertising. We just choose to do good advertising. - Right. That's it. - It's kind of an arbitrary choice, to tell you the truth. - That's right. [MUSIC PLAYING] I love Kevin Bacon. I love this spot. - My favorite actor? Oh, that's easy. Kevin Bacon, obviously. - To get Kevin Bacon to be in a commercial about Kevin Bacon, playing someone else who wants to be Kevin Bacon? Talk about a perfect storm of craziness. There was this product from Google and Logitech combined. - The Logitech remote is just perfect for me because I just type in Kevin Bacon. And it uses Google TV. Finds all kinds of movies and shows and YouTube videos. - What if Kevin Bacon, who had been associated with the title six degrees of separation, and the whole idea of the whole world being, you know, within six degrees of separation of everybody and everything. That's kind of what this remote did. It took you to those things. So we went, OK, first level thing would be to put Kevin Bacon into the commercial, and just have him talk about this thing. A better thing to do would be to put a guy in who's obsessed with Kevin Bacon and would talk about this thing. And an even better thing than that would be to put a guy in who happens to be Kevin Bacon himself playing the part of the guy who's obsessed with Kevin Bacon. So yeah, it's the dictionary definition of meta. And it, like, folds in on itself. But, you know, he is so good playing this guy obsessed with himself. - It's me and Kevin. I've never actually met him. I had it commissio...
About the Instructor
As the minds behind the “got milk?” campaign, the Budweiser lizards, and countless other ads that have permeated pop culture, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein never stop reimagining the possibilities of advertising. Now they’re sharing how they make the beautiful and edgy work that’s seen by millions. Learn how to come up with great ideas, tell funny and compelling stories, and dazzle at your next pitch or presentation.
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Jeff Goodby & Rich Silverstein
Advertising icons Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein teach you how to break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life.
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