Catching up with Karyn
OMG! Funny Really DOES Make Money!
A CFO’s Take on Humor in the Workplace
One thousand, four hundred CFOs were asked, “How important is an employee’s sense of humor in him or her fitting into your company’s corporate culture?” Seventy-nine percent of them said that an employee’s sense of humor was important for fitting into a company’s corporate culture. Seventy-nine percent!
Wow! Two things about this impressed me. First, seventy-nine percent is a huge majority. And second, why the heck did they ask CFOs?! One would of thought they’d ask the CEO or director of HR, but I think it’s fantastic that the researchers asked the single most numbers-oriented person in any firm such a “soft” question.
The research also revealed that twenty-two percent said it was “very important,” while twenty percent said it was “not at all important.”
“A little levity goes a long way toward building rapport among colleagues, and...
Funny Means Money: Humor and Your Marketing Message
A bunch of guys are playing football in a park. The ball is hiked. The quarterback steps back to throw. The receiver—an old woman!—shuffles down the field. Ninety-year-old comedic actress Betty White nearly catches the ball, but suddenly she’s brutally tackled. One of her teammates teases, “Hey man, you’re playing like Betty White out there!” She’s given a Snickers Bar, which transforms her back into his proper male form. The tagline: “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
It became one of the most talked-about commercials in Super Bowl history.
Ask folks if they watch the Super Bowl and you’ll often hear, “I just watch the game for the commercials.” People remember and talk about these ads! Especially the funny ones.
This is why leaders at companies like Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, Allstate Insurance, Reebok, McDonald’s, and Budweiser pay $4.5 million for 30-second spots, most of which are humorous. Why...
