Pharmaceutical Market Europe • November 2023 • 14

MIKE DIXON

MIKE DIXON
INJECTING SOME HUMOUR

Do we have a tendency to be too serious in our healthcare marketing and comms?

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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.

Be sensitive

All that sounds good, so why don’t we make everything funny then? If only it was that simple. We can not forget that we are working in healthcare and that there is a thin line between appropriate and inappropriate use of humour. If we get the balance wrong, the result can be more destructive than it could ever have been positive. So just like the treatments we promote, careful consideration needs to be given to the benefit vs risk ratio. It is also important to recognise that humour can be subjective and can vary between cultures, genders and ideologies; so what may be funny for some, may be abhorrent to others. Testing, excellent audience insights and targeting are therefore essential if we are going to inject humour into our communications.

When used appropriately, humour works

That brings me to the second part of my question, should we be injecting more humour into our marketing? Probably not surprisingly as I am writing this, I am suggesting we could be, with the caveat that as long as it is appropriate. There are many case studies that support this suggestion. And it’s wrong to think that it should only be used in the ‘lesser conditions, not serious ones’, because there are fantastic examples that show how a pinch of lightheartedness can be used in cancer communications. For example, the current NHS Bowel Cancer screening campaign where a man dances with a toilet roll. Coppafeel and Know Your Lemons for breast cancer, using the tune of Staying Alive to demonstrate how to resuscitate, the list goes on. And don’t just think it’s all about awareness campaigns. There are great examples of pharmaceutical promotion to HCPs capitalising on the power of humour as well.

Even though humour is only going to work in specific situations, let’s not forget to consider it. In every brainstorm session, consider if there is a humour option; if not, move on. But when you do find that opportunity to inject some humour, be brave.  When used respectfully, empathetically and appropriately, the power that humour could inject into your campaign could see you laughing all the way to the awards stage.


Mike Dixon is CEO of the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) and a communications consultant