Tongue-in-Cheek is Serious Business

We can all enjoy a good conversation. Many companies, including “big business,” have learned this and, as of late, have implemented it more than ever before. The truth of the matter is that people are more willing to trust a laid-back, conversational person than they are the stiff-necked (ex-)marketing guru. We can see this conversational style all over the advertising world. For instance, Apple’s campaign of Mac and PC. Apple isn’t lambasting Windows like a cheesy, poorly created 1970’s political ad. Rather, they are approaching the situation from a humorous, ironic perspective. What we mean by irony is this: the dichotomy of the seriousness of the subject matter juxtaposed to the humorous nature of the ad.

Cheeky Web

This tongue in cheek has made it’s way all over the web, and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. With Twitter, we first saw the “Fail Whale”; another juxtaposition of a fairly odd theme for a 404 page. Also, with Twitter, the entire branding concept is wrapped around a small, cartoon bird. Ten years ago, seemingly, this kind of branding and user experience was limited to cereal boxes. But “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids” has turned into “silly PC, Macs are for grownups.” Leading social platform Facebook has adopted the tongue-in-cheek concept as well, offering “Pirate” as a language choice, extending support even for the automated emails sent to notify the user of a new wall post or message.

Facebook's Pirate language let's you log-in with your 'Lectric Parrot and Secret Code

Google (long known for their sense of humor, anyway) has even adopted the conversational idea with their latest video push for Chrome OS.

Why does funny work so well?

Well, there’s no proof necessarily as to why the slightly ironic tinge of the latest web-trends appeals to us (maybe the Trix rabbit is the real cause for it all). But one theory suggests that, especially for those in the United States, the economic crisis and the media surrounding it are “heavy,” so to speak; the light-hearted jabs Apple takes at Microsoft are a relief from the weight of the situation at hand.

But hey, nobody really knows why mullets caught on in the eighties, except that the popular guys did it. When it comes down to it, it could be said that a lot of it is simply a stylistic trend that is spearheaded by some guys up top that have a good sense of humor, and know that laughter, even in advertising, is like medicine. And it seems like it’s an addicting pill.

The Bandwagon

Other players in the humor game pop up daily. Just taking a quick glance over at sites like LogoPond will show the toyish-look of branding. Often resembling caricatures, a “hot trend” in logo design is to give the mark some “personality.” This is all a huge part of the user experience.

Source: LogoPond.com

User Experience

The result of the conversational, tongue-in-cheek attitude towards business is a strong brand loyalty, and at least positive recognition of the humor, if it is done well. We’ve all met the Windows user who chuckled at the most recent “promise” ad from Apple. The front end of a person’s experience with a company is extremely important; whether that person becomes a customer or not, the companies implementing this into their advertising and branding understand the importance of perception; even though PC users may never use Apple’s OS, they quite possibly (more probably) will own an iPod, or perhaps an iPhone; by maintaining a humorous stance, Apple doesn’t estrange the opponent’s customers.

Conclusion

We can see quite clearly that the cheeky attitude of companies on and off the web has had a major impact on user experience study as we know it. What have you found to be effective, or anti-effective, about this kind of front-end user experience?

Note: This article talks about advertising and branding quite a bit. This is because advertising is a very significant portion of the user experience, whether the advertising targets new customers or existing customers. Often, advertising and branding are the only communication between a company and its potential, new, or loyal customers.