VALPARAISO | Some tune in for the frenzy of athletic prowess.
But many others tune in to guffaw at cavemen rolling a beer cooler made of stone or chuckle at grown men playing "rock, paper, scissors" to win the last beer.
The Super Bowl is Sunday, and chances are that viewers will laugh at one of the advertisements that will ring up record prices
Companies will shell out $2.7 million this year to get the attention of viewers in only 30 seconds, and one technique they turn to is the use of humor.
But humor may hinder, not help, some Super Bowl advertisements, says Valparaiso University cognitive psychology professor Kieth Carlson who is studying the connection between humor and memory.
Carlson, a five-year member of the faculty at VU, says his research on why humor is an aid to human memory has shown that Super Bowl advertising is one example of how something funny can deter viewers from seeing the real message behind the communication.
"Research has shown that commercials can be really really funny, but counterproductive to the advertisement, because you don't remember later what they're advertising. An ineffectual advertisement can be really funny," said Carlson.
The most effective ads, Carlson says, are those that are moderately humorous and tie their humor directly to the name of a product or brand, such as GEICO's commercials starring a talking gecko.
"To be used effectively in advertising, the joke, or the punch line, has to be closely linked to the product. These are the most successful," he said.
Carlson adds that sometimes using too much humor is a technique used by politicians to divert the attention from the topic.
"In political campaigns, sometimes politicians use humor to distract you from the other information that they don't want you to pay attention to," he said, noting that he has witnessed this phenomenon in the current political races, but refrains from stating which ones.
Carlson is a cognitive psychologist, so he studies the effect of humor on the brain and the mental processes.
His project has incorporated past VU students, as well as a current student and a colleague from another institution. He hopes to publish his findings in a professional journal at the conclusion of his findings.
