FIR #453: Humor Us — How Playful Teasing Strengthens Brand Relationships

Mar 4, 2025

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It may seem counterintuitive, but playful teasing between brands and customers can produce unexpected benefits. Inspired by research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, we explore why strategically “roasting” customers with humor and lighthearted banter can enhance brand loyalty and deepen customer connections. Discover how embracing a bit of playful provocation might be the surprising secret ingredient your brand needs to stand out, build lasting relationships, and keep your audience coming back for more.

Also in this episode, we follow up our report from FIR #442 (December 26, 2024) about the publicity battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively: A report in the Hollywood Reporter finds that the fallout from this conflict is affecting publicists everywhere.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, March 24.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

Raw Transcript:

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to four immediate Release. This is episode 4 53. I’m Neville Hobson. I’m Shell Holtz, and all of our reports of late have been very serious in tone and nature. So we’re gonna lighten it up a little bit today and talk about poking fun at your customers in public. Doing that in, in insulting your customers, while others are watching, may not seem like the best way to get their business.

But brands are increasingly embracing playful provocation to engage. Consumers and foster deeper relationships. This strategy, often referred to as a roasting customer involves lighthearted teasing that humanizes the brand and makes it more relatable. This isn’t just a, an observation I’m making based on, tweets and other messages that I see from brands. This is based on Uni University research, that rigorous academic research in this case from Duke University’s Fuqua [00:01:00] School of Business, which highlighted the effectiveness of this approach. I. Professor Gavin Fitzsimmons and his colleagues found that playful provocation enhances the customer brand connection by making brands appear more human-like.

Their studies demonstrated that teasing increases engagement compared to humor alone, but caution that excessive provocation can lead to negative perceptions, to which I said, well, no, duh. So there’s a balance that needs to be struck, but let’s. Take a quick look at several brands that have been implementing this tactic successfully.

Starting with one of the ones that I think is best known for this, which is Wendy’s known for its sharp and witty social media presence. They frequently roast both. Competitors and customers. In fact, they have a national roast day where they invite followers to request a roast leading to some pretty funny and engaging interactions.

A user, for example, said, roast to me Wendy’s, and Wendy’s said, you’re like a participation trophy in human form. [00:02:00] And there’s Ryanair. The European airline u uses a cheeky and irreverent tone on platforms like TikTok, often poking fun at common travel mishaps, and even its own services, which resonates with a younger audience.

On TikTok they said, when you realize your carry-on is bigger than our leg room I didn’t see the photo that went with, but I can imagine. Duncan the Coffee and Donuts place and a Halloween campaign, they featured a spider themed donut that was accompanied by suggestive messages on social media, aiming to rebuild interest in the product and engage customers with playful content.

Netflix often engages in playful banter with its audience on social media, teasing fans about their viewing habits and preferences that humanizes the brand and fosters the sense of community. KFC another fast food place. They’ve employed humor and mild provocation in its marketing, such as responding to customer tweets with pretty witty remarks, [00:03:00] enhancing brand relatability and customer engagement.

There’s Old Spice. They sent a tweet that said If your grandfather hadn’t worn Old, old Spice, you wouldn’t exist as the type of thing that they do. Dollar Shave Club has viral marketing campaigns that invo include humorous and edgy content that mocks traditional shaving brands. Oreo. During the 2013 Super Bowl blackout, they were quick-witted saying You can still dunk in the dark.

We reported on that when it happened. They took advantage of an unexpected situation, earning some praise and engagement by being a little. Snarky. Spotify their annual rap campaign highlights users listening habits, sometimes teasing them about their most streamed songs or genres, which encourages social sharing and brand interaction.

And Telstra, the Australian Telecommunications Company, they launched a whimsical animated campaign titled Wherever we Go that was aimed to reshape its [00:04:00] corporate image and connect with customers on a more playful level through that personal . Content research supports the effectiveness of the strategy.

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that playful provocation increases engagement and connection to the brand by making it appear more human-like and relatable. But they also caution that doing this too much can pro provoke negative feelings and underscores the importance of balance.

There was also research highlighted in the magazine, frontiers in Psychology. That indicates that witty brand teasing can be an effective communication strategy as low aggressive humor increases consumer interest by reducing perceptions of manipulative intent. So when executed thoughtfully, teasing and playful, Provo provocation can serve as a as powerful tools for brands to enhance customer engagement and build stronger connections.

So you’re gonna start teasing people on LinkedIn, Neville. It’s it’s interesting I have to say shell the examples you gave, [00:05:00] many of them I’ve heard of some I haven’t. I’m actually intrigued. I guess it, it leads me to ask the follow up question, which is, okay, they did these things. What were the outcomes?

Were they worth doing? I have to say, when I was listening to what, to you outlining all of these, I was trying to think of some recent ones and I can’t actually recall any. I mean there obviously have been some. But I think it’s a it’s a risky proposition, isn’t it? You need to be very confident in your brand proposition and the fact that it’s well understood, I suspect, or you are strong enough to withstand a backlash to that.

So you gotta have your plan well structured to get the result you want, I would imagine. Some of ’em are clever. You mentioned Ryanair. It’s an Irish airline actually, and they have a reputation. We’ve talked about this in episodes from many years back. The CEO of Ryanair is renowned for insulting customers but not in a humorous way.

He really does insult them. I. He’s had a sea change in the last couple of years where he’s actually become [00:06:00] a normal, reasonable human being. rather than the kind of obnoxious person He was bellowing with age, is he? Yeah. I think, and he has some smart people running the social accounts without doubt because I still see them with some of the witty approaches to very snarky approaches, which actually

Produce a smile rather than anger. That’s a sea change in how they’ve gone about it. But it is a fine line, isn’t it? You need to be careful with humor. We know that otherwise, if you get it wrong, it can have serious implications. I think it begins with your brand voice. I believe.

If your voice is one that is very serious and then all of a sudden you decide to. Engage in some of this banter with somebody online. It’s going to be very much a non-sequitur. It’s gonna be jarring. People are gonna wonder what you’re up to. But if you have established a voice that is playful like that, Wendy’s did this early on, on Twitter.

In fact, I remember when I was [00:07:00] consulting I met with a team from Wendy’s, and this was. Before they were on Twitter for, I’d have to go look my notes, but it may have even been before there was a Twitter and they were trying to figure out what to do with social media. They were thinking maybe they could have their stores each set up a, a Facebook.

Page and talk about their little league sponsorships and the like. But then along comes Twitter and boy did they find their voice, and it’s been their voice consistently. So nobody is surprised by it. Everybody’s expecting it. And that’s one of the big reasons people follow that account. Oh, and by the way, here’s a coupon for a dollar off of one of our burgers.

It is, it’s been very effective for them. And yeah. Yeah from the get go, I think you’re, you have to establish a voice that is consistent with this kind of thing. Yeah. That makes total sense. And weave it into your brand strategy rather than just big events.

You mentioned the Super Bowl is one example and there others, we see it here, although not to this extent that [00:08:00] I can recall during football. Match it at major championship events, for example, where there’s big audiences. So opportunity is there if you get it right. And Phil, marks of those who do well.

Before we wrap this episode up, I want to. Offer a quick follow up to a story that we reported back on episode 442 on December 26th of last year about the kerfuffle between Justin Bald and Blake Lively. That has led to accusations and counter accusations and lawsuits and counter lawsuits. And the reason we reported on this is that Mr.

Baldoni was represented by a public relations firm a publicity firm that engaged in some practices that. We’re dodgy to say the least. Now the Hollywood reporter is reporting that the situation has created a considerable [00:09:00] anxiety among Hollywood’s publicity class. According to several personal and studio publicists that the Hollywood reporter interviewed, the scandal has changed how representatives not involved with the case operate.

One of them said, this will change the personal publicist game forever. 100%. When a client says, I want you to protect my reputation and get ahead of this story, or, I don’t like that headline, can you call the reporter? No way. If what you’re doing has ramifications for another celebrity, you’re now going to think that you could get sued.

Another veteran publicist said from the start from the very start of the lively baldoni shit show, it was PR who made the situation worse. Changing the face of PR is what this veteran publicist said that the case is doing. The fiasco notes of Veteran Studio Publicist brings to mind something that publicists are taught at the very start of their careers.

All comms folks are taught from day one. [00:10:00] Never put anything in writing you wouldn’t want on the front page of the New York Times. This has been a reminder of that all important rule. So some changes going on throughout our industry that have been sparked by this situation. Neville. Yeah. It ha it has, we did report on it.

You’re right. So I wrote a blog post myself with further thoughts on it, and I’ve been following it as I’m sure you have. On the latest developments in the case. It’s still an ugly lawsuit situation without any doubt and the reputational damage to the main protagonist. Blake Lively.

And Justin Baldoni is severe in B’S case. He’s suffered massive damage to his career in being ignored and dropped Lively’s, fallen foul of some missteps, I think in how she’s been talking online, including embracing, uh, taylor Swift is her support that, has she rejected that?

So that was an interesting development. I saw recently that Lively’s husband, Brian Reynolds had been, come out [00:11:00] speaking for her that misfired a little bit. So it’s messy. I think though the thrust of what we talked about, certainly my post was the ethical. Thing regarding B’S PR team or agency or whoever they were.

And indeed, we, I think we named the person who, whose name doesn’t spring to mind right now that was behind all of this. There was outrage on the ethics thing. And I suppose we could bring out the cynical hat. Put it on because that’s it. Nothing else has happened as a result that I’ve seen commented on publicly.

The flurry at the start was how dreadful this is, and it’s bad for the industry, and they should know better. I’ve not seen anyone commenting further on that. So it’s all about the lawsuits and the fallout from that. That’s still developing, but. I think we ought to be looking at this still from the ethics point of view and I guess reminding us this is not how you should do this.

But I’ve not seen anyone talking about that show. Yeah. Apparently the publicists themselves are talking about it because [00:12:00] they’re going to reject requests from their clients to engage in any of the kind of activity that, bald was looking for when all of this got started we’ll see how much that trickles over into the rest of the public relations industry when it comes to badmouthing your competition, for example.

Yeah, doubtful that it’ll have that much of an impact, but. We’ll see. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve not seen you mentioned about publicists reported over this side of the Atlantic at all. So maybe it’s a US focus, I suspect, but it, it needs more than that and I dunno what would stimulate it. It’s probably.

Not interesting enough for most people, it’s yet another case of something bad going on. And maybe it’ll get lively, pun not intended. Once it gets, if it is, if it does get to court or if some other development happens, but the accusations are really bad on both sides. The missteps on both sites seem also to be impacting this and what other work.

People think about it. So I think Blake [00:13:00] Lively has lost some of the sympathy. She attracted at the very beginning with those missteps. And so mill advised advice on some of the behaviors. Balian in the meantime, as I mentioned earlier, has suffered big time from this. But he’s doubling down on his defending of it.

So this thing’s got legs for a while. I think she. Yeah, exactly why most PR people now looking at this wouldn’t want to touch anything even close to it. , and that’ll be a 30 for this episode of four immediate release.

Raw Transcript

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