You may not agree with this, but Jack Benny was the greatest comedian of all time.
He didn’t have to say anything to make people laugh. All he had to do was walk across the stage in that loping manner of his or stare at the camera with his exasperated look, and people would laugh their socks off.
He practiced a subtle form of humor that was more visual than verbal, and it’s a type of humor that’s rare these days, especially in TV spots.
Now, I like exaggerated visual humor as much as the next guy. John Cleese as the “Minister of Silly Walks” is one of the best pieces of visual humor ever created.
Visual humor in a TV spot, however, often draws too much attention to itself, giving viewers a lot to laugh at but diluting the product message so that they don’t even know what’s being advertised. They’re too busy laughing to pay attention to the product.
The type of visual humor that evokes a smile instead of laughter—or maybe a chuckle or two—entertains the audience while it informs them.
It’s difficult to create such humor for a commercial. If it’s too subtle, the product message still gets lost because the audience is busy wondering why they didn’t get the joke.
When the right balance of humor and selling is achieved, the TV spot is a marvel to watch, like the one by JWT New York for Domino’s Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza.
The spot opens on three guys sitting at a kitchen table. One guy opens a pizza box, sniffs the aroma and says, “Nothing like the smell of Domino’s Cheesy Garlic Pizza.”
The guy has a schnozzle the size of an eggplant.
The guy sitting across from him disagrees that the aroma of garlic is the best thing about the pizza.
“Smell? C’mon, man, it’s all about the taste,” he says. “Buttery crust.”
This guy’s mouth is as wide as the Mississippi River.
They go back and forth about whether it’s the taste of the crust or the smell that’s best when the third guy says, “Look at the cheese.”
If you guessed that his eyes were as big as manhole covers, you’d be right.
The oversized features are designed to show that everyone likes pizza for a different reason and that Domino’s is giving everyone what they like in one tasty product.
The kicker to the spot is the ending. The guys continue to debate what they like best, and then the camera cuts to another guy mowing the lawn in the yard. He turns toward the house. “Man, that sounds good,” he says.
He has ears that make Dumbo the Elephant’s ears look puny.
The large nose, mouth, eyes and ears are certainly noticeable—that’s the whole point—but they’re not overpowering, except perhaps for the ears. Real people do have large features, and this spot exaggerates them just enough to achieve the right effect: an entertaining vehicle that sells a product.
It does a great job of selling the product benefits through the debate the guys have at the table, talking about the buttery crust and the aroma of garlic and all that cheese.
The focus remains on the product despite the obvious visual humor. None of the guys mentions the unusual features they have. Big Nose, for example, never makes a snide remark about Big Mouth.
That would have ruined the spot by turning it into a sophomoric name-calling escapade. It’s all played deadpan, allowing the viewer to enter into the joke instead of having it thrust at them—humor as enjoyable as Jack Benny’s exasperated look.