Combining Product Reviews With Humour

Discussion in 'Marketing' started by QualiTReviews, Feb 24, 2014.

  1. QualiTReviews

    QualiTReviews New Member

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    I'm sorry, but re-read what you just said. What a load of crap. Nobody has the right to put anybody down just because they feel like it. If that's what you think then that is what's currently wrong with the world.

    How about I start attacking you or something you've built from the ground up and are passionate about? Would you NOT be defensive? Oh please, I was hoping to hear the perspective of professional writers with an ability to stay on topic.
     
  2. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    There are forums where all is positive and if someone has an opinion that is not positive, that opinion is never expressed.

    This is not one of those forums.

    A businessman generally needs to be openminded, pragmatic, and have a skin with some thickness to it. If you were able to hear people, your business might improve and have more success. If it's your well-loved creation, I think that it deserves your best, even if that sometimes causes you some discomfort.
     
  3. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    So, whether the original poster wants discussion or not, this is a topic that has interested me. I would say that humor in informative writing, and particularly humor in informative writing that is intended to persuade, needs to be humor that tries to form a bond with the reader.

    The piece in the review website doesn't do that--as I read it, it mocks us--mildly, but not kindly--for our supposed lack of understanding that people have a very short attention span for online persuasion, and also seems to mock us for having a short attention span. The writer stands away from us and instructs us.

    It would be much better for the writer to stand with us and share our frustration. Instead of a vibe of "silly rabbit, don't you know that your readers have a three minute attention span?" it could have a vibe of "isn't it maddening when you can't communicate the really valuable information that's just bubbling out of you? It maddens me, too, but here's how you can make it better."

    You can have humor with that, too, but it's an "us trying to help them" humor rather than a "they're all idiots, and I'm not sure about you, either" humor.
     
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  4. MrReliable3599

    MrReliable3599 New Member

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    You were hoping to hear what you wanted to hear.

    You did hear the perspective of professional writers with an ability to stay on topic. The only conflict is you weren't really "hoping" to hear what you heard.

    Writers are the most judgmental, arrogant, antagonistic drama queens you're going to find anywhere. But that doesn't mean they're stupid. It just means whatever you've got better be really good if you're expecting praise. If your idea is that good, you don't need approval from "professional writers." To put a little more edge on my original soft opinion of what I saw on your website, whatever brilliant idea you came up with at the bar needs a whole lot more work before it's even good enough to test.
     
  5. cazann34

    cazann34 Active Member

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    That's like saying: We have found the cure for the common cold but it'll make your fingers fall off!

    Product reviews and humour are not good bed-fellows. Who in their right mind would take any product serious and indeed what to buy it, if it was tainted with humour.
     
  6. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    Boy howdy, this thread turned ugly fast. Other than the obvious trolling, I'm a little surprised that everyone here wouldn't see the advantage of including humor in any aspect of life that we can.

    There's a guy named Dan Neill who writes on automobiles for The Wall Street Journal (among others). He wrote a column some time ago about the Shelby GT500 Mustang. The bulk of the review was the usual: technical specifications and Neill's impression of power, handling, interior, etc., but he began the column with this:

    "AND SO, the deed is done. House, wife, kids, beautiful neighbors, joy. It's all mine.

    Ho-hum. Day 2. Wife, joy, yada yada…

    It is astonishing that happy people can get bored. Me, for example. My life is that of a well-fed academic, working from home on a never-ending dissertation. It's college with kids.

    What is this shameful Mustang-shaped hole in my heart? Why can I actually, practically imagine myself owning one of these redneck hoo-hahs? What need would it satisfy? Admit it, the Ford Mustang has baggage. Six-cylinder Mustangs are chick cars. I'm sorry, it's in the Bible. And when people start piling horsepower on top of the V8-powered cars—a rogue's gallery of Saleens and Roushes and Super Snakes—they get completely ridiculous. Commuting in one is like wearing a bejeweled codpiece to work.
    And yet, as I imagine what it would be like to own our test car—a 662-horsepower, 200-mph Ford Mustang Shelby GT500—I dig it. I savor the wantonness and random foolishness it would bring into my otherwise fairly measured life. Yes, this is exactly what Dad needs: a hateful American hot rod, a drag-racing demi-urge brooding in the driveway. I'm going out for a drive. If anybody needs me, I'll be in jail."

    Just for that, I'll read anything the guy writes, and I'll read any paper or website he writes for.

    Another example: I own the best camera strap in the world, made by a company named Crumpler. Their product name for this strap is: The Industry Disgrace. I think that's hilarious.
     
    QualiTReviews likes this.

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