I have found myself watching a lot of Operation Ouch recently, the side effect of having a ten-year-old son. One thing it has reminded me of is the power of humour to help engage and educate. My son would never have learned so much about the body and health from a documentary, one reason being that he would not choose to watch it.

For Operation Ouch, it is the lighthearted, funny, irreverent bottom sounds and grossness that resonates so well. Now I am not going to suggest we replicate that in pharmaceutical marketing – although, to be honest, that humour would not be lost on many adults as well.  But do we have a tendency to be too serious in our healthcare marketing and comms?  Because we are dealing with people’s health and lives, do we feel we can’t inject some humour into what we do?

Of course, when I refer to humour, I am not necessarily meaning something that elicits belly laughs, but more likely some lighthearted fun that brings a smile to your face on a wet and windy winter’s day. And let’s face it, with the days getting shorter, the world getting scarier, climate change continuing and the economy not doing too well either, we all may be more receptive to something that will make us smile.

In considering this, I was reminded of a very effective cartoon that went viral during the early months of COVID-19 to communicate why everybody needed to wear masks for them to be effective. You may remember it: two naked men weeing in close proximity to one another. When one put trousers on, the other stayed dry, but he still got sprayed. When they both put trousers on, neither got sprayed. Perhaps weird, but it went viral and I have no doubt that for a selection of the population it conveyed the message better than any three-word slogan on a lectern. And of course, living in the UK, who can forget the fresh and fun analogies from JVT during the otherwise sombre Downing Street news briefings.  Also remember that within the medical profession humour is rife and often provides an important coping mechanism for the difficult scenarios healthcare professionals (HCPs) face and a way for them to connect positively with patients.

So how does humour help in communicating messages and should we be considering it more in healthcare marketing? To answer the former, there are several reasons:

Attention-grabbing: humour often stands out and, as a consequence, is more likely to be noticed and engaged with.

Connecting emotionally: the very nature of humour elicits an emotional connection. When associated with the message, positive emotions of happiness translate to a positive connection, making the recipient more inclined to listen and engage in a positive way.

Differentiation: if we can engage with our audience at this level and make them smile, it creates a unique experience and helps differentiate from competing, blander messaging.

Memorability: the element of humour often leads to improved recall that, when we are trying to maintain a change or embed knowledge, increases the chance of success.

Viral opportunities: in the digital age in particular, people are keener to share and talk about something they think will pass on that humour, thereby helping the message and its impact spread more widely and potentially exponentially.