12 THE APPEAL OF HUMOUR The origins of appealing In rhetorical theory, the idea of an appeal dates back to Aristotle, who identified the three main appeals of communication: ethos, pathos, and logos, or, in modern ETHOS language, credibility, emotion, Credibility & and logic. The idea was that if Authority you can establish yourself as credible (ethos), if you can address your audience s emotions, as with empathy (pathos), PATHOS LOGOS and if you can present Logic & Reason Emotion & a logical argument Imagination (logos), you may persuade people to act. Can you tell a joke in English? Humour as an attention grabber Laughter is an important part of human psychology. On the most basic level, it is something that connects all humans. Laughter gives us a way to process all kinds of information, from funny stimuli to a situation where laughing is the only possible reaction because circumstances are difficult. Humour grabs our attention, and this is why it is often used in marketing communication. Marketers aim at capturing the attention of consumers; once they are paying attention, the hope is that they will enjoy the humour and remember the product and the brand in the future. It is another technique to engage consumers with a form of communication that appeals to them and may thus persuade them to act towards the brand. appeal: richiamo catchy: accattivante copywriter: redattore pubblicitario laughter: risata pun: gioco di parole 34 Being punny Humour is especially good when it uses visual comparisons and metaphoric or idiomatic imagery that people can understand quickly, but words can also be catchy, if combined with humour. This is the copywriters task, who need all their creativity in order to play with the COMMUNICATION AND PSYCHOLOGY language and connect it to the product. The invented word punny (pun+funny) is just an example of that. The humour appeal is especially good when the product, service, or idea companies are promoting is not particularly controversial, otherwise it could offend the customers sensitivity.