Each day, consumers are exposed to several advertisements through various mediums, including television, print media, billboards, radio, and now social media extensively, where marketers compete to gain consumer attention to make their advertised message memorable. Marketers are using humor in advertising to grab the consumer’s attention by making the advertised message unique against their competitors. The objectives of this research are to explore the types of humor used in advertising by examining the effect on consumer attention, message retention, and recall of the message followed by the factors that impact the attention and retention of the advertised message in the consumer memory. The objectives of this research have been met using narrative inquiry qualitative research through an analysis of several humorous advertisements on consumers and the data has been composed using a video elicitation method.

The findings of this research support the use of humorous advertising, showing it as an effective tool in gaining consumer attention and has a positive impact on consumer memory, increasing message retention and recall. Humorous advertisements connect with the consumer’s emotions, positively impacting the consumer’s memory while making the advertised message memorable for a more extended period. By engaging with consumers, emotionally humorous advertisements tend to lift brand awareness in their minds, which leads to a positive change in the brand attitude. This research also suggests that marketers should use humor carefully by associating it with the appropriate product and by understanding the target consumers’ needs. Basically, the advertised product should be well blended with the concept of humor to get the consumers’ desired positive response. Otherwise, a slight imbalance between the amalgamation of these two can create negative word of mouth for the brand.

Keywords: Advertisements, video elicitation method, consumer memory