Laughter, the best medicine, but for marketing?
By Frank Reed. Filed in Social Media Marketing |Tags: Humor, Internet marketing, Laughter, Reader's Digest
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by Frank Reed
OK, I admit it. I am old as compared to many of the Internet gurus/wizards/ninjas of today. Trouble is, I can’t change that. I have looked, but there is not an app for that. Because I am a little older, I have reference points that many of the young whipper-snappers of the Internet age will simply shake their heads at, so that their cool eyeglasses will fall off their heads (whether they have lenses or not). I remember a magazine called The Reader’s Digest. I think it still exists, but in large print only ;-). Actually it does still exists in an online form and in a written format but I have no idea who reads it.
What I remember as a kid, though, when leafing through Reader’s Digest (it was actually a big deal to me way back then in the Stone Age) was one section of the magazine called “Laughter, the Best Medicine.” It was just a section of jokes. One-liners, short form jokes and more. It was a place to go and forget about the world. A place to chuckle and, for a youngster like me, it was sometimes a place to get confused because I didn’t get the joke. Interestingly enough, I always felt better after reading that section, because a good laugh is like a tonic or an elixir, and has therapeutic properties.
That’s why it is so funny to watch the Internet age whiz kids try to make each other laugh as if they were the ones that invented the very act itself. Viral videos of stupid human tricks and other things created for the sole purpose of giving people the same escape I sought as a boy.
Now, though, we make it a contest and while the volume of funny stuff has increased a gazillion fold it’s still there to do the same thing. To heal, to make us forget or to make us relate laughter and the feeling it elicits with a product or service.
We are doing the same thing we have always done, but just with more volume and more glitz. Maybe we should all just step back from the manic pace of creating a good vibe and just let it happen at a more real pace. That’s when someone really gets healed. That’s where connections are made.
We need to stop forcing good feelings on people to sell things. It’s not what laughter is really meant to be. It’s the best medicine, not the best marketing tool. If you can sell something along the way, then more power to you, but don’t force the issue. Medicine takes time to work.
Friday, May 21st 2010 at 12:32 pm |
It is hard to find the humor in ranking poorly in a big search engine after you have spent countless hours attempting to market your site, but being able to laugh at your self in both work and life is a valuable asset.
Sunday, May 23rd 2010 at 7:45 am |
I know what you mean about people trying to push laughter at you. I often find more humor in commercials where it was not intended then when an advertiser tries to force it down my throat. One of my favorites was a car commercial where the car is crowd surfing and the disclaimer text read “cars are ment to drive on roads not people”. Hollywood does the same thing trying to make comedies, they rarely make me laugh because it feels unnatural. If an advertiser really wants to make me laugh try something new and a little more subtle, sometimes I feel like they take videos from America’s Funniest Home Videos and dub a sales script over it.
Monday, May 24th 2010 at 11:22 pm |
Laughter is definitely good, but I’m not sure I get what you’re saying… are you saying that sites dedicated just to getting you to laugh is a bad idea? Or that it’s somehow forcing someone to laugh?
I don’t really follow, but if the reader (surfer I suppose now) is going to a laugh site then they probably can’t be said be “forced”.
Tuesday, May 25th 2010 at 4:11 am |
Laughter makes one look younger. But though marketing is a serious stuff, I think a pleasing personality works wonder. :)
I agree that medicine takes time to work but being persistent to what you’re doing is a key to successful marketing.
Tuesday, May 25th 2010 at 12:07 pm |
Laughter really is the best medicine but for internet marketing its knowledge. Knowledge to all the fields of internet marketing.
Tuesday, May 25th 2010 at 1:55 pm |
do you mean to say that we need to add humor to our marketing strategies? I don’t think our clients would like that. Most of my clients are not much into humor. It might offend them.
precy
Sunday, May 30th 2010 at 1:22 pm |
I don’t agree to this. Laughter makes some clients offended or pissed. Especially when they are in a hurry or in a bad mood.
Tuesday, June 1st 2010 at 10:51 am |
There’s still a circulation of “Reader’s Digest” around here, but it doesn’t have that much content during my pa’s days.