Comedy is an integral aspect in my life; from a
young age I have always looked to humor to solve many of my problems. Besides
the fact that being funny got me attention, I’ve found that being funny lower
peoples’ guards and increases their affability. Comedy is an effective way to
connect with people; if you can make me laugh, you have my complete attention.
This proves useful in the advertising/PR world when
trying to reach an audience. Many of my favorite ads have been funny, and I
find myself more inclined to like a product/brand if they use humor in their
advertisements.
Meeting with Conan O’Brien and Katherine Ryan was
wonderful for a comedy junkie like me. Both are two very funny people, yet
still humble and honest. They both had integrity, which is somewhat difficult
to come by in that industry; both of them said that they are motivated by their
own comedic tastes and don’t take others into consideration when producing
their material. While we aspiring ad/PR people have to be more collaborative,
it still proves an important lesson—stick to your convictions and find work
that challenges you.
I asked Conan if he thought comedy was an effective
way to reach people about social issues, and he said only if it was genuine and
the comedy was the driving force, not the social impact. I can understand that;
comedy can’t be contrived or it falls flat. But I still believe that more than
“shock value,” comedy is the best way to reach people and laughter is the first
step in changing beliefs and behavior. It is my hope that I will one day be
able to utilize comedy in any campaign I do because while I want to make the
world a little better, I also just want to make it laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment