Mervat Abou

Humor Appeal in Egyptian TV Commercials:: a Content Analysis on Ramadan and Non Ramadan Advertising Mervat Abou

Advertising is considered an effective communication channel which has a powerful effect on people's buying behavior, perception and attitude towards specific goods or services. Advertising experts follow different criteria and techniques to make advertising messages effective. One of these techniques is deciding on the commercial appeal. Humor appeal is one of the famous techniques that advertisers follow to grasp people's attention. Previous studies showed that humor has a positive effect on memory and perception. This study examines TV humor commercials vs. non humor ones aired during Ramadan and the two weeks prior to Ramadan on Egyptian local 'Channel One'. The study aims to compare commercial agenda during Ramadan vs. non Ramadan and to examine humor content in commercials during the two different periods. It also tends to find out whether humor is the main appeal used in Egyptian TV commercials or advertisers prefer other appeals. The study also tends to examine the many variables within humor commercial vs. non humor one such as product involvement, type of humor, format used, ad setting and main characters in the ad.