Step 3: Form Connections Between All of the WordsĪfter creating your association image between the first two words in the list, repeat Step 2 with the rest of the words. Paired with the dry and irreverent delivery of the comedian who plays Mayhem, this makes for a memorable ad campaign. The bizarre nature of a human representing common mishaps makes otherwise stressful scenes feel funny and relatable.
Thus, we have an easier time recalling them (and may be more likely to buy from the company that created them).įor example, the insurance company Allstate has used its Mayhem character-a humorous anthropomorphization of various destructive and unexpected situations-to create popular commercials for years. Strange and funny commercials usually don’t match our brains' existing categories for ads, so they stand out instead of blending in with countless others. Other experts suggest that funny and bizarre ads are easy to remember because they defy our brain’s natural tendency to categorize information. Think of a commercial you can easily recall-it’s likely something bizarre, something that made you laugh, or both.Īccording to some advertising experts, funny ads are easier to remember because we pay more attention to them than to non-humorous ads, thus creating the foundational memories that Lorayne and Lucas discuss. How Advertisers Use Humor and Peculiarity to Create Memorable CommercialsĪdvertisers take advantage of our tendency to remember humorous and strange information to create memorable commercials. Thus, we pay close attention to moving images and are more likely to remember them.) Many predators that threatened the survival of early humans moved quickly, so our brains became highly adept at detecting motion. (Shortform note: In Brain Rules, John Medina explains that visual aids for learning (like our unusual, active mental pictures) often involve action and motion because of how we evolved. For instance, to create your association for the first two words on our example list from Step 1- moon and pencil-you might imagine that the moon has grown arms and is waving around a giant pencil. Furthermore, Lorayne and Lucas suggest incorporating action into your mental image, as actions are easier to remember than static pictures.