Using next to nothing to be funny: 21 minimalistic, funny advertisements

Some brands try really hard to be funny with an ad, others keep it minimalistic. This often works out just as good, even though you might need some more time to understand the joke. I personally like it when you have to think a little, especially when the result is getting a joke.

 As if four paper clips would randomly lay somewhere in Germany, they'd be in their appropriate box.

WTF Japan? - Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, but I wish it was

I personally don't like banana's. I don't know why, maybe it's a character flaw. It's a given that the guy below definitely does like bananas. Studies show people share 50% of their DNA with bananas, but in this guys' case, it's definitely more. Dole, the company behind this weird banana ad, is the largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world. As much history as they might write in the food branch, they will forever be remembered for this.

What.

This is how you hire someone: 20 funny and clever recruitment ads

You don't just advertise when you're selling something. You can also advertise for other needs. For instance: You need new employees. Doing this in a funny way won't guarantee you better employees. It probably will get your more responses, which statistically enlarge your chances of getting a great employee.

If I can just read it back, I can definitely understand it. If gibbered to me in a noisy bar I'd definitely have a harder time.

The best commercials ever to come from Holland

"Even Apeldoorn bellen." Or as it's known to Americans: "Just call us." Probably a collection of the most clever commercials ever from Holland. They're made for an insurance company, Centraal Beheer, and feature people getting into the most ridiculous, but technically plausible situations. The answer to their situation is always simple, Just call us. The formula is incredibly simple, but unlike DIRECTV's ads, doesn't get old because it's applied very, very well.

I'm gonna feature three well-known ads here: Two that have been translated into English, the third one's my personal favourite. The first one is probably the most familiar with everyone. The commercial features Adam and Eve in paradise. Although this Adam sounds like he'd rather have Steve.

Not every brand wants to be funny pt. 2: Cultural differences

To pick an appropriate brand name isn't too easy itself. But introducing that name in a foreign country is another level of difficulty. We've looked at examples of brands that didn't want to be funny. These were funny because they were translated badly, or not at all. Today's examples have to do with deeper levels: Culture, pronunciation or slang terms.

Baby food producer Gerber wanted to introduce their baby food in Africa. Their jars obviously feature their logo, with a baby prominently in frame. What they didn't consider is that it's common in Africa to put the main ingredient of the product on the jar. Baby food got an entirely different meaning like this.

WTF Japan - The return of our weirdest friend so far

I don't get how some commercials can be successful. Especially ones featuring a creepy anthropomorphic dog. After releasing the first one, the people at Calbee said: "Let's make another!" It's actually a surprising amount better than the last one. Let's take it Giga Puddi style and go through it in pictures.

Check him out, just lounging. Not a care in the world. He's internet famous, gets all the bitches (assuming he's male) He's watching a baseball game of his little friend, when the boy suddenly misses a ball. Being the good friend that he is, he returns the ball.

Sixty Second Movie: The Laughing my ads off Infomercial!

We all love infomercials. At least we all love to hate infomercials. That inspired me to make a Sixty Second Movie about my blog in an over-the-top cliché way. Enjoy!

23 people completely unable to do the most basic things

In preparation for my Sixty Second Movie, premiering tomorrow, I decided to scrape together the worst .gifs in infomercial history. Get ready for 23 of the most useless people ever!

 Yeah seriously, get a grip. Why is that woman sitting in the shower wearing a towel?

 Ain't no party like a Snuggie family party. 

Don't mess with old ladies who look like Danny Trejo

The Superbowl is a wonderful time of the year. Or so I'm told. I'm European so I have no connection with it whatsoever. I couldn't explain the rules of American football if I tried. I am interested in the ads however. It sparked my interest when I heard American people say they watch the Superbowl solely for the commercials. This made me check out some Superbowl ads and I quickly found my favourite. A Doritos ad from 2012 featuring the most bad ass grandma ever.

Duracell: Just like the battery, the ads last long

Why Duracell started to use pink rabbits to promote their products may be never known, but what is known is that they lasted. The bunnies became an icon, even though they started out a little creepy. Back in 1983, they didn't have all the fancy CGI technology we have nowadays. They still used actual toy rabbits.

It almost reminds me of the Japanese pasta army. All staring into the abyss, mindlessly hitting that drum. The good part is that you can see these bunnies run out of energy one by one. All except one. The one fueled by Duracell. The little drummer bunny keeps going for up to six times longer. I just hope there's an off switch.

17 of the best and funniest print ads out there

While advertisements in video form can be funny, never forget print ads. Printed ads may be a dying breed, companies still know how to make them really funny, let's take a look at some funny ones, in my opinion.

 At least his brain is okay to rethink his strategy next time he gets on a bike.

WTF Japan? - Borderline Satanic pasta... things

Every week I assume I found the weirdest Japanese commercial out there. But every week I'm proven wrong. After enormous pudding and a dancing dog, this pasta army of evilness is on another level. 

The surroundings of an ad are really important

You thought of everything. You made your ad just the way you want. You know it can't be interpreted wrongly. Sadly, you have no control of whatever is around your ad. This can turn funny ads into something offensive and wrong.

I don't know what's worse. The old browser, the crappy ad or the implication it gets. 

Humour in advertising? Its effectiveness depends, according to Ace Metrix

Humour in advertising can be effective, but it isn't always effective. Millward Brown touched on this in their study, but today we're delving deeper into that with Ace Metrix's findings.

Ace Metrix first defines the reason why advertisers use humour. Simple: Connect with viewers and make them either start buying, or keep buying your product. Despite the fact that this is so simple, it's hard to do a large-scaly study to the effectiveness of humour. Ace Metrix bypassed the intimidatingly huge scale by just tackling it. They scored all television advertisements and got a clear picture of the effectiveness.

Their study resulted in the following key findings:

• About one-in-five advertisements on television is funny
• Certain industries and brands consistently produced humorous ads
• Humorous ads tend to be light on informative content
• Humorous ads tend to get higher levels of viewer attention, increased likeability and improved willingness to watch the ad again 
• While Super Bowl ads measured three times as funny as other ads, they were not more effective than other ads in that period.

Would you trust this face?

There's nothing worse than commercials trying to be funny but completely missing. Sometimes they can end up being unintentionally funny, but other times it makes you feel uncomfortable. Such is the case of this ad. Strato is a webhosting company that originates in Germany and is mostly popular in Europe. Stay with me Americans, you'll get a laugh out of this. Because for some reason Strato expects us to trust this face:

You find yourself repeating the same formula over and over, don't repeat the same formula over and over

I personally love stuff that is funny because of the fact that it makes no sense. It's risky for a company to use this kind because you run the risk of being misconstrued. Besides that, there is always the chance of getting predictable. As random as they are, this is still what DIRECTV's  'Get rid of cable' does. The first one you watch is the best, after that they deteriorate fast.

The one with Charlie Sheen is probably the best, so we'll start with that.

Not every brand wants to be funny

Not every brand tries to be funny. But a completely normal brand name can take a strange turn when translated. Whether it's done through autocorrect, or a foreign word gets a different meaning when read in English, it's funny. This can make ordinary products worth mentioning on lists like this.

Some companies have trouble defining their target audience. Others... not so much.

Six Word Story - Evian's Babies

Rollerskating babies?

This water works wonders

How Mr T went from a hero to an absolute failure trying to be funny

I love Mr T. I really do. The man has passed sixty years of age, but will always be remember as the BAMF B.A. Baracus from The A-Team. He also had a great role in Rocky III as Clubber Lang. So where do you go from there? In Mr T's case, downhill. The next show he was in was T and T, which didn't come anywhere close to The A-Team. After that, it's further downhill than the Grand Canyon with voice acting in kid's shows.

BUT THEN. He started doing what made me write this blogpost about the fallen hero. He did an infomercial. I don't know what the 'T' in Mr. T means*, but I'm pretty sure it's not Turbo.

*I actually do know, it's Tureaud

WTF Japan? - A dog doing... stuff

If you're familiar with Japanese commercials, just mentioning 'dog' and 'Japan' in a sentence will make you immediately think of today's topic. For today's commercial is a bit... special. Dogs are known to do many wonderful things: They can bring back a Frisbee or a stick, they can sit or lay down on command, or they can cheer a kid up by wearing a dolls' head and dancing while holding plates over their crotch. Wait, what?

Yes. I wish I was kidding.