Get thee to a punnery! The whys and wherefores of word play for brands
To pun or not to pun? That is the question I’m pondering today (to coincide with the mighty UK Pun Championships in Leicester). If they were good enough for Shakespeare, why not the common advertiser?
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Puns divide the room, don’t they?
On one side the pun-lovers, whose default position is a linguistic jape whatever the brief.
On the other side, the anti pun lobby, rejecting any punny headline purely on the basis that it uses wordplay – however brilliant it may be.
My view?
Puns are like eating with your fingers or oral sex: there’s a time and place.
Done right, a pun can work wonders for your brand, elevating the mundane, creating a smile in the mind, using wit to woo your reader.
Done wrong, it can come across as inappropriately flippant, cringeworthy or cover for an ad devoid of an idea.
So what’s wrong and right for a pun?
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The good, the bad and the pun ugly
Pun: a joke exploiting the different meanings of a word or the fact that there are words of the same sound and different meanings. (Thanks, OED).
But for a pun to be good, it has to work two ways. By that I mean, both readings of the sentence have to make sense – the original and the twisted version. It’s not just about changing a word in the sentence to your brand name, or swapping out a word for the sake of it. A good pun is cleverer than that.
Done right, a pun can work wonders for your brand, elevating the mundane, creating a smile in the mind, using wit to woo your reader.
What defines a bad pun? From a brand perspective, it’s simply one that makes the listener think less of you. It might because the pun is a bit of a feeble dad-joke. (That copywriter really knows her punions 😫) Or it might be because it’s out of kilter with your whole brand.
Puns are best avoided around sensitive subjects and serious topics, where levity would diminish the message.
They need to be handled with extreme care around high end luxury, where facetiousness can cheapen the proposition.
And they’re not the natural bedfellow of brands with a formal, compassionate or solemn tone of voice. Law firms, charities, funeral directors.
That said, if you’re a brand trying to take a deliberately disruptive or challenger position, the pun may be your friend. Because in deploying one or two of those bad boys, you instantly differentiate yourself.
If I launched a catering company specialising in irreverent funeral wakes, I’d call it ‘Fed and Buried’. That would leave the competition in the dust, so to speak.
Remember what I said about eating with your fingers? Sometimes it’s important to pick up the chicken drumstick even though there are royals present – just to make a point.
first direct did it for financial services, when banking was universally booooring.
Ardbeg did it for single malts, when most whisky brands were taking themselves very seriously indeed.
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A few of my favourites from the Story team over the years
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Reasons to reach for a pun
- To entertain and amuse
- To be memorable: a good pun will stick in the mind (as will a really bad one)
- To get more bang for your buck: a good pun has two meanings so you get to say two things at once
- To say something controversial or downright uncompliant with plausible deniability
- Because you’re a dog groomer or hairdresser
- To build affinity: if it’s clever, it flatters the reader who gets it – an in-joke for the erudite and witty
- To stand out in an otherwise straight-laced sector
Tips for wielding a pun effectively
They’re best in headlines. Think of the tabloids – hook ’em in, then get down to business.
Use sparingly. A scatterpun approach should not be encouraged.
Does it translate, linguistically and/or culturally? If your copy is going to be translated into different languages, will the humour or the message be lost?
Is it the right kind of pun for your brand? Puns range from Christmas cracker cheese-fests to witty one-liners to brilliant bon mots. Make sure your pun matches your tone of voice.
Is the pun making a point? Frolicsome word play shouldn’t replace a serious value proposition.
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A way with puns? Or away with puns?
Too many brands take a po-faced stance on puns, outlawing them from their brand guidelines altogether. That seems a shame, when the occasional, well-timed, well-executed pun could be just what they need to catch attention and land a message.
Perhaps they’ve been stung by inappropriate word play in the past. But that might be because they haven’t entrusted their pun-writing to a pro. Someone who knows how to wield a pun skilfully and responsibly. Someone who knows when to hold fire and when to pull the trigger.
But enough with the gun puns.
If you’d like to chat puns, word play and other linguistic gymnastics for your brand, get in touch:
