Consumer Reactions to YouTube Humor Ads by Type

Abstract

Background The contemporary advertising landscape inundates today's consumers with a barrage of advertisements, irrespective of their desires. Consequently, consumers have developed a sense of indifference to advertisements across various media platforms. Amidst this backdrop, the potential effectiveness of humorous advertisements as a means to overcome advertisement avoidance has garnered increasing attention. As the effectiveness of humorous advertisements varies depending on the advertising medium and the gender and age of the viewer, this study aims to categorize the types of humorous advertisements in the YouTube medium to find out the consumer response to each type of humorous advertisement, and to find out which type of humorous advertisement is effective in reducing consumer ad avoidance according to gender and age. Methods To determine the likability of the advertisements of men and women in their 20s, likability of the advertisements, this research employed eye-tracking devices—a psychophysiological technique—to measure changes in consumers' pupil size. Additionally, interviews were conducted to provide qualitative evidence of likability. Next, we administered a survey to determine advertisement comprehension. Statistical analysis involved subjecting the data to a two-way ANOVA using SPSS PASW Statistics 18. Results The findings revealed that parody advertisements were most preferred by both male and female viewers in terms of likability. Furthermore, the CM Song (Commercial Message Song) advertisements proved most effective in enhancing viewers’ understanding of the advertisement message. Notably, distinct preferences emerged concerning the type of humorous advertisements in relation to both advertisement liking and comprehension, emphasizing that consumers' appreciation of humorous advertisements does not necessarily lead to their comprehension of the conveyed message. Conclusions In light of the study’s outcomes, it becomes evident that the parody style of humorous advertisements holds the highest degree of likability among both male and female viewers. In contrast, the CM Song type of humorous advertisements emerges as the most effective form in terms of facilitating comprehension. Consequently, a judicious combination of both types of humorous advertisement may be recommended to create advertisements that successfully satisfy both aspects of liking and comprehension. © 2024 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted educational and non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. All Rights Reserved.