Is humour ‘back in all its forms’?
Campaign asks creative leaders whether humour is back, following comments made by the Cannes Lions film jury president.
Humour: the creatives' take
When Anthropic's Claude ads were screened at a press conference during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last month, there was laughter among the journalists from around the globe.
The Film Grand Prix winners "Can I get a six pack quickly?" and "How can I communicate better with my mom?" by Mother London broke during the Super Bowl earlier this year and took aim at its competitors by announcing it is to keep its chats ad free.
The films come across as private conversations that take a surreal end in which the response ends with an ad. For example, a man wanting to improve his relationship with his mother is served an ad for a mature dating site.
This wasn't the only work that had humour in it among the list of winners. The wider category included Life360 "I think of you dying" by Alto New York; Andrex "First school poo" by FCB London (which has now merged into AMV BBDO); Shield Insurance "After shit happened service" by VML Bangkok; and Instacart "For Papa" by Local Produce, McCann New York and BBDO Chicago to name just a few.
Lee Tan, Chief creative officer and co-founder at Motel
Getting men to book prostate cancer screenings. Reassuring people about AI. Making a barcode the size of a football pitch. Just some of this year's big winners that used humour brilliantly. But as someone who first fell for this industry because of work that made people laugh, or at least smile, I still don't think humour has truly bounced back just yet. I'd love to see even more of it on the podium next year.