The Plague of Indifference
Welcome to marcomms in 2026.
Cut-through’s vital. After all, if people haven’t heard about you, how the hell are they going to buy from you?
But!
There’s a plague of indifference.
Most people only see the word ‘ad’ in the phrase, “Skip Ad”.
Companies pay platforms to show ads; people pay platforms not to show ads.
And people just wouldn’t care if three quarters of all brands disappeared tomorrow*.
Now for the good news.
Humour is people’s favourite brand messaging type. They prefer to laugh at this type of ad:
While they like — and share — posts like this:
So why do Snickers and Ryanair do this?
They’re not just cranking out jokes.
It affects the bottom line.
In the first year of Snicker’s You’re not You When You’re Hungry campaign, sales went up 15.9%*.
Ryanair’s profits between 2011 and 2025 went up 14.7% year on year*.
There are many reasons for this but humour in their comms definitely benefitted their ability to cut through with their vast audiences.
Happier customers, and a healthier bottom line.
One thing’s for sure:
As a powerful business development tool, humour’s not to be laughed at.
* Sources:
Presentation by Nils Leonard, Uncommon, Most Contagious, London, 2nd December 2025;
Snickers: Miller, James: ‘How Fame made Snickers’ You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ campaign a success’, Campaign, 26th October 2016;
Ryanair profits: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RYAAY/ryanair-holdings/revenue.