*

Humor in Business

*

Creative Advertising*

Two Business Models:*

Spaghetti Factory & Kleenex: Explain!*

Business Symbolism*

Is Humor Good for the Bottom Line? Business as Usual

*

But What Are the Effects of Business as Usual?

*

Bad Jobs!*

BUSINESSES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR NEW APPROACHESAn Office at GoogleHumor consultant John Morreall advises businesses on how to make employees like to come to work. It is fine to decorate an office or pin up cartoons, but really, it i much more complex than that.

Professor John Morreall works with many successful companies.He helps them find ways to make their employees WANT to come to work.He stresses that decorating an office or pinning up funny cartoons is just a beginning.

*

*

Businesses which encourage humor also: Take initiative and risks.Do not worry about making mistakes.Spend energy on solutions.Shoot for total quality.Focus on opportunities.

Do not worry about breaking things.Try easier, not harder.Stay calm.Take responsibility.Experiment.Smile.Have fun.

*

*To Accomplish These Goals, Companies Have to:Flatten the organization by reducing levels of management.Allow workers more discretion in making decisions.Foster creative thinking.Accept employee attitudes, emotions, and suggestions. Encourage teamwork and collaboration.

*

Administrators Views of Humor-in-Business :A survey of 100 of the largest American corporations found that 84% of administrators preferred employees with a sense of humor because, they tend to be more creative, less rigid, and more willing to consider and embrace new ideas and methods.

In a different survey of 737 CEOs, 98% said that humor was important in the conduct of business and that they therefore gave preference to people with a sense of humor.

C. Thomas Howard, director of the MBA program at the University of Denver said in a New York Times interview that It is interesting that hard skills are considered better than soft, but when people go into management, its the soft skills that make the difference in career success.

*

*

More Support for HumorThe director of human resources at Sun Microsystems told Prof. Morreall that in interviews she watches for how long it takes an interviewee to laugh or to find something funny, or in some other way share their sense of humor because humor is very important in our corporate future.

Employees in a branch of Digital Equipment took it upon themselves to encourage a humorous tone in their workplace. They created a Grouch Patrol so that when they see someone with a sour face, they respond by making a bat face, which involves pushing the tip of their noses up, flicking their tongues in and out quickly, and making a high-pitched Eeeee sound.

*

When Humor Bubbles-Up from Employees, There Will of Course Be Lots of Variety.Practical jokes weve recently heard about include decorating or putting foam packing bubbles in the cubicles of colleagues who are absent. A boss who went on a three-week trip, came back to find real sod rolled out in his office just to prove that grass does grow under your feet.One company sponsored a door-decorating contest on the cruise ship that was taking 12 of their outstanding employees to Mexico. The winners were four secretaries who had photos of their faces superimposed on pictures of jungle animals. They used the slogan Where the Wild Things Are when creating a fake jungle. Losers teased them for getting professional help with their photos.

*

At our local BEADS GALORE store an employee made this sign for the window.UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE GIVEN TO THE GOBLIN KINGAPPARENTLY, SHE WAS TIRED OF REARRANGING THE DISPLAYS.*

*Other Examples of Workplace Humor

A debt collector sent out a letter reading, We appreciate your business, but, please, give us a break. Your account is overdue 10 months. That means weve carried you longer than your mother did.

A business manager, who made a really bad mistake, wore a T-shirt with a large red bulls-eye on it when he went to a meeting about the problem. Everyone laughed, relaxed, and began working on the problem.

A large IBM sales team improved their record 30% when they formed a pick-up orchestra and recorded their sales in fun ways, e.g. by blowing a horn, smashing a gong, or moving toy race-horses around a race track.

*

More Examples In their Humor at Work, Esther Blumenfield and Lynne Alpern told about four women who conspired to get even with a male co-worker. At meetings, he would routinely drop his pencil on the floor so that he could bend down under the table and look up their skirts. One day before a scheduled meeting, they used a magic marker to print on their kneecaps: H I (space) R A L P H.

John Morreall tells about how the CEO of a large Canadian bank appears in a monthly corporate video shown to all employees to discuss recent issues and plans. But part way through his presentation, a hand puppet will appear, and sort of like a jester for a King will begin poking fun and asking him about recent problems in the bank.

*

Part of the reason that the Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shops are growing so quickly is their quirky humor.*

Cartoonist Scott Adams has made his career drawing Dilbert cartoons which explore these business-related themes:Downsizing Heavy work loads Micromanagement of budgetsCubicles that are humiliatingly smallAn accelerating pace of change Corporate gobbledygook Management fads Cruel bosses, Annoying colleagues and red tape.

HOW DO THEY WORK TO RELIEVE TENSION? *

Adams encourages readers to send in their true stories. His cartoons are so popular that they are published on the Business pages of most newspapers.

Guy Kawasaki, a management expert at Apple Computer said, There are only two kinds of companies, those that recognize that theyre just like Dilbert, and those that dont know it yet.*

Once employees incorporate humor in their daily lives, it seems natural to extend humor to their customers and potential customers.

For example, Volkswagen introduced the VW Rabbit into the United States with a 10-second commercial showing two rabbits looking into the camera. One is saying, In 1956 there were only two VWs in America. . .

At a California traffic school that is named Lettuce Amuse U, the teachers are comedians, who try to make up for the angst their students feel because of being ticketed, e.g. one teacher explains to his students that an extra reason for keeping your baby safe in a backward-facing car seat is If you get rear-ended, youve got a witness.

*

In Arizona, even the State Highway Department uses a sense of humor when before three-day-weekends, they put lighted warnings on major highways. *

As part of a subscription drive, The Arizona Republic gave away umbrellas covered with reprints of their comic strips, while at our foot doctors office, we were amused to see he had incorporated the anti-fungus toenail gang to tell us to turn off our cell phones.*

*

Connections between Humor and AdvertisingJean-Louis Barsoux compared good humor and good advertising copy when she wrote:They both require brevity.

They open peoples minds to enable them to have a new viewpoint.

People get involved in processing the message, and therefore remember it longer.

*

Match the Slogans with the ProductsYour grandparents, and maybe your parents, will remember these slogans.The beer that made Milwaukee famousB. O.Say it with flowersWhen it rains, it poursSnap, crackle and popNatures spelled backwardsGood to the Last Drop

Match them up with the popular products. Is there humor involved?

Rice KrispiesSchlitz BeerSeratanAmerican Florist Assoc.Maxwell CoffeeMorton SaltLivebuoy Soap

*

*

Advertisers used creative spelling before text messaging--to make their names memorable and to help with trademark protection.Some Early ExamplesE-Z KwikReaLemonReddi-WipRy-KrispKrispiesTastee-FreezToys UsU-Haul

More Recent ExamplesAspercremeDunkin DonutsE-Z-onHaggar Expand-o-maticKwik KopyPlayskoolSominexWhataburgerWolverine Durashocks

*

The Staying Power of Brand NamesAccording to Bill Bryson, nineteen of the twenty-two companies that owned the leading American brand in 1925 still owns it. Conjecture on the contributing factors.Campbells in soupDel Monte in canned fruitGillette in razorsIvory in soapKelloggs in breakfast cerealsKodak in filmNabisco in cookiesSherwin Williams in paintSinger in sewing machinesWrigleys in chewing gum

*

*

Why did Band-Aid, Kleenex, Scotch Tape, Thermos, and Zipper become common rather than proper nouns?

Think of other examples. These are relatively older products.Of course manufacturers like their products to be considered the benchmark, but today they work harder to protect their names so that consumers will look exclusively for their products rather than for the imitators.*

*James Twitchell, used his own kind of humor to criticize Americas market culture. He wrote:If Greece gave the world philosophy, Britain gave drama, Austria gave music, Germany gave politics, and Italy gave art, then America has recently contributed mass-produced and mass-consumed objects.In all cultures we buy things, steal things, and hoard things. From time to time, some of us collect vast amounts of things such as tulip bulbs, paint drippings on canvases, bits of minerals. Others collect such stuff as thimbles, shoes, even libraries of videocassettes.He added that our materialism is a kind of spiritualism, but instead of looking at the next life for our rewards, we are looking for The Nike swoosh, the Polo pony, the Guess? label, and the DKNY logo.

DOES HE HAVE A POINT?

*

Jean Kilbourne observes that:People say, I dont pay attention to ads. I just tune them out. They have no effect on me. But, she adds much of advertising power comes from the belief that it does not affect us.Back in Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels said, This is the secret of propaganda: those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it. This is where humor comes in. If we are amused or laughing at a commercial or a program, then our defenses are down and we are more likely to want to buy whatever is being shown.

*

*

Kilbourne goes on to say that products are our friends, and our gods.Alcoholics joke that Jack Daniels is their constant lover, while smokers feel that cigarettes are their friends. People are twice seduced, first by the ads and then by the substances.

At the very least, she says advertising helps to create a climate in which certain values flourish and others are not reflected at all.

Infiniti is an automobile; Hydra Zen is a moisturizer, and Jesus is a brand of jeans, and then adds that Consumerism has become the religion of our time (with advertising its holy text), but the criticism usually stops short of what is at the heart of the comparison. Both advertising and religion share a belief in transformation.

*

She gives a powerful example:In 1980 the Gwichin tribe of Alaska got television, and therefore massive advertising, for the first time.They no longer had time to learn ancient hunting methods, their parents language or their oral history.Legends told around campfires could not compete with Beverly Hills 90210.Beaded moccasins gave way to Nike sneakers, and tundra tea to Folgers instant coffee.

*

Much closer to home, even ten-year-olds are being turned into COVER GIRLS.Each girl at this weekend celebration in Louisville brought her American Girl doll.All the girls were photographed and put onto a fake cover of a local magazine. What parent could resist buying it?But what is the long term result?

*

Critics ask whether such commercialization builds high expectations that can never be satisfied. *Humor enters the picture because when we laugh at something, we are less likely to be critical or to analyze its true worth.

*While we smile at the following bumper sticker messages collected by James Twitchell, do we also sort of believe in them? A womans place is in the mall.But I cant be overdrawn! I still have some checks. He who dies with the most toys wins.Im spending my grandchildrens inheritance.Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all.People who say money cant buy happiness, dont know where to shop.Shop til you drop.When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

*

*Scott Adams DilbertDilbert themes include downsizing, heavy work loads, micromanagement of budgets, humiliating small cubicles, the accelerating pace of change, corporate gobbledegook, management fads, cruel bosses, annoying colleagues, and red tape.

Guy Kawasaki, a management expert at Apple Computer says: There are only two kinds of companies, those that recognize that theyre just like Dilbert, and those that dont know it yet.

(Morreall [2008]: 472)

*

*We will conclude with miscellaneous Laws of Business developed over the years:MURPHYS LAW: If anything can go wrong, it will, extended to When left to themselves, things always go from bad to worse, and If anything can go wrong, it will, and even if it cant it might.

OTOOLES LAW: Murphy was an optimist.

DAMON RUNYANS LAW: In all human affairs, the odds are always six to five against.

*

MORE LAWS . . .

THE PETER PRINCIPLE: Each employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.

PETERS COROLLARY PRINCIPLE: When people are doing well they will be promoted, which means that everyone not upwardly mobile is incompetent.

MARSHALLS GENERALIZED ICEBERG THEOREM: Seven-eights of everything cannot be seen.

PAUL HERBIGS PRINCIPLE OF BUREAUCRATIC TINKERTOYS: If it can be understood, its not yet finished.

*

*

*THE FINAL RULES OF BUSINESSRULE NUMBER 1:

The boss is always right.

RULE NUMBER 2:

If the boss is wrong, see Rule Number 1.

*

*Business Humor Web Sites*DILBERT:http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/

*DILBERT STREAMING:http://www.youtube.com/user/dilbert

*THE HAPPINESS MACHINE:http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=lqT_dPApj9U

*MOTIVATION: PROFIT VS. PURPOSE; LEVELING THE HIERARCHY (e.g. Internet, Wikipedia, Skype, Facebook, Google, Southwest):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=relmfu

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*