Abstract
This paper discusses humour and tourism, with a focus on “Spain Marks”, an international campaign used to promote Spain as a tourism destination. The importance of this relationship suggests that the use of humour in marketing works as an engagement and loyalty strategy, as well to portray the uniqueness of a destination. The “Spain Marks” campaign was innovative in its use of humour because it offered a fresh and a contemporary image of Spain as a tourism destination. This campaign has been specially selected for its exceptional ironic character. The study aims to understand the humour appreciation of this specific advertisement using an online survey that was completed by 40 participants. The results indicate that the use of humour is a difficult task because what is perceived as fun, attractive and ironic in any tourism campaign is highly subjective.
References
Agapito, D., Mendes, J., & Valle, P. (2013). ‘Exploring the conceptualization of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences’. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 2(2), pp. 62-73.
Andreu, L., Bigné, J. E., & Cooper, C. (2000). ‘Projected and perceived image of Spain as a tourist destination for British travellers’. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 9(4), pp. 47-67.
Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous texts: A semantic and pragmatic analysis (Vol. 6). Walter de Gruyter.
Ball, S., & Johnson, K. (2001). ‘Humour in commercial hospitality settings’. In Search of Hospitality, pp. 198-216.
Barsoux, J. L. (1993). Funny business: Humour, management and business culture. Cassell.
Bernabéu, A. & Rocamora, R. (2010). ‘De Spain is different a I need Spain. La función apelativa en campañas turísticas españolas’. Gran Tour, 2, pp. 83-100.
Bock, S. (2014). ‘What Happens Here, Stays Here: Selling the Untellable in a Tourism Advertising Campaign’. Western Folklore, 73(2-3), pp. 216-234.
Brône, G., Feyaerts, K., & Veale, T. (Eds.). (2015). Cognitive linguistics and humor research (Vol. 26). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Carbelo, B., & Jáuregui, E. (2006). ‘Emociones positivas: humor positivo’. Papeles del psicólogo, 27(1), pp. 18-30.
Chang, W. Y., & Chang, I. Y. (2014). ‘The influences of humorous advertising on brand popularity and advertising effects in the tourism industry’. Sustainability, 6(12), pp. 9205-9217.
Cohen, E. (2010). ‘Confirmation versus contestation of tourism theories in tourist jokes’. Tourism Analysis, 15, pp. 3-16.
Collectt, P. (2004). The book of tells. Great Britain: Doubleday.
Cómitre N., I. & Valverde Z., J.M. (2014). ‘How to translate culture-specific ítems: a case study of tourist promotion campaign by Turespaña’. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 21, pp. 71-112.
Corbacho, J. M.; Valderrama, M. & García, S. (2014) ‘The nation brand of Spain on the internet through the I need Spain campaign’. Historia y Comunicación Social, 19, pp. 501-512.
Crawford, H. J., & Gregory, G. D. (2015). ‘Humorous advertising that travels: A review and call for research’. Journal of Business Research, 68(3), pp. 569-577.
Critchley, S. (2013). Humor. Routledge.
Dore, M. (2018). ‘Controversial humor in advertising’. In Maon, F., Lindgreen, A., Vanhamme, J.Angell, R., Memery, J. (ed.). (2018). Not All Claps and Cheers: Humor in Business and Society Relationships. pp. 132-146. London: Routledge.
Eisend, M. (2009). ‘A meta-analysis of humor in advertising’. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37(2), pp. 191-203.
Falconer, E. (2017). ‘Learning to be zen: women travellers and the imperative to happy’. Journal of Gender Studies, 26(1), pp. 56-65.
Fernández, A. M. (2017). ‘Humor as a teaching resource’. Revista Educación, 41(1), 173-188.
Francesconi, S. (2017). ‘Dynamic intersemiosi as a humour-enacting trigger in a tourist video’. Visual Communication, 16(4), pp. 395-425.
Franzini, L. R. (2012). Just kidding: Using humour effectively. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Frew, E. A. (2006). ‘The humour tourist: A conceptualisation’. Journal of Business Research 59, pp. 643-646.
Fry, W. F. (2011). Sweet madness: A study of humor (Vol. 1). Transaction Publishers.
Fuentes-Luque, A. (2016). ‘Branding and selling a country through translated tourism advertising: Spain’s image’. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 22(2), pp. 84-103.
Garín-Muñoz, T., & de Juan, R. (2012). ‘La imagen de España como destino turístico’. Panorama Social, (16), pp. 106-124.
Geuens, M., De Pelsmacker, P., & Faseur, T. (2011). ‘Emotional advertising: Revisiting the role of product category’. Journal of Business Research, 64(4), pp. 418-426.
Haiko, M. (2015). Destination image and brand element familiarity among foreign tourists. Degree Programme in Tourism. Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu. http://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/101263
Hampes, W. P. (2010). ‘The relation between humor styles and empathy’. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 6(3), pp. 34-45.
Hultén, B. (2011). ‘Sensory marketing: the multi-sensory brand-experience concept’. European Business Review, 23(3), pp. 256-273.
Io, M. (2013). ‘Testing a model of effective interpretation to boost the heritage tourism experience: a case study in Macao’. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(6), pp. 900-914.
Kemp, E., Childers, C. Y., & Williams, K. H. (2012). ‘Place branding: creating self-brand connections and brand advocacy’. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 21(7), pp. 508-515.
Kuipers, G. (2015). Good humor, bad taste: A sociology of the joke. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Lewis, R.D. (2006). When cultures collide: Leading across cultures. Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey International.
Llorens, F. (2013). ‘The promotion of tourism in Spain. From stereotype to brand image’. Tourism and tourist promotion around the world: a linguistic and socio-cultural perspective, 5-6, pp. 1-16.
Lynch, O. H. (2002). ‘Humorous communication: Finding a place for humor in communication research’. Communication theory, 12(4), pp. 423-445.
Madden, T. J., & Weinberger, M. G. (1984). ‘Humor in advertising: A effectiveness after repeated exposures to a radio commercial: practitioner view’. Journal of Advertising Research, 24, pp. 23-29.
Mahony, D. L., Burroughs, W. J., & Lippman, L. G. (2002). ‘Perceived attributes of health-promoting laughter: A cross-generational comparison’. The Journal of Psychology, 136(2), pp. 171-181.
Mariottini, L. (2012). ‘I need Spain. Análisis pragmático de la campaña de promoción turística 2010’ / ‘I need Spain. Pragmatic analysis of the 2010 tourism promotion campaign’ . Pasos, 10(4), pp. 105-113.
Martin, R. A., & Ford, T. (2018). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Academic press.
Martínez, E. & Nicolás, M. Á. (2013). ‘Andalucía as Tourist Destination: Analysis of Advertising Campaigns “Smail You Are In Andalucía” and “Andalucía Loves You”’. Cuadernos de Turismo, 32, pp. 329-331.
Mestre, R., Del Rey, A., & Stanishevski, K. (2008). ‘The image of Spain as tourist destination built through fictional cinema’. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 24(2-3), pp. 185-194.
Mirna, C., & Igor, V. (2016). ‘Destination Branding-The Unique Destination Proposition Creation: Mediterranean as it should be’. Journal of Tourism Research & Hospitality, 5 (S2), pp. 1-9.
Mitas, O., Yarnal, C., Chick, G. (2012). ‘Jokes build community: Mature tourists’ positive emotions’. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(4), pp. 1884-1905.
Morgan, N. & Pritchard, A. (2001) Advertising in Tourism and Leisure, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann
Morreall, J. (2014). ‘Humor, philosophy and education’. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(2), pp. 120-131.
Morris, J. D., & Boone, M. A. (1998). ‘The effects of music on emotional response, brand attitude, and purchase intent in an emotional advertising condition’. ACR North American Advances.
Neuendorf, K. A., & Skalski, P. (2001). ‘Senses of humor: The development of a multi-factor scale in relationship to moving image utility’. Paper presented at the International Communication Association, Acapulco, Mexico.
Nobs, M.L. (2006) La traducción de folletos turísticos. ¿Qué calidad demandan los turistas? / The translation of tourist brochures. Which quality are tourists demanding? Granada: Comares,
Pabel, A & Pearce, P. L. (2015). Highlighting the benefits of tourism humour: The views of tourists. Tourism Management Perspectives, 16, pp. 357-364.
Pabel, A. & Pearce, P. L. (2016). Tourists' responses to humour. Annals of Tourism Research, 57, pp. 190-205.
Pabel, A. & Pearce, P. L. (2018). Selecting humour in tourism settings–A guide for tourism operators. Tourism Management Perspectives, 25, pp. 64-70.
Pabel, A. (2017). The role of humour in contributing to tourism experiences. In S. Filep, J. Laing & M. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds.), Positive Tourism (pp. 100-118). New York: Routledge.
Pallant, J. (2000). Development and validation of a scale to measure perceived control of internal states. Journal of Personality Assessment, 75, pp. 308–337.
Panda, T. K., Panda, T. K., & Mishra, K. (2013). ‘Does emotional appeal work in advertising? The rationality behind using emotional appeal to create favourable brand attitude’. IUP Journal of Brand Management, 10(2), pp. 7-23
Parente, D., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. (2014). Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning.
Pearce, P. L., & Pabel, A. (2015). Tourism and humour. Bristol: Channel View Publications.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Plumed, M. (2012). ‘Evolution of the image of Spain as tourist destination’. European Journal of Tourism Hospitality and Recreation, 3, pp. 215-233.
Poria, Y., Reichel, A., & Biran, A. (2006). ‘Heritage site perceptions and motivations to visit’. Journal of Travel Research, 44, pp. 318-326.
Refaie, E. E. (2011). ‘The pragmatics of humour reception: Young people’s responses to a newspaper cartoon’. International Journal of Humor Research, 24(1), pp. 87-108.
Reisinger, Y., & Turner, L. (2012). Cross-cultural behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Reisinger, Y., & Steiner, C. (2006). ‘Reconceptualising interpretation: The role of tour guides in authentic tourism’. Current Issues In Tourism, 9(6), pp. 481-498.
Riecken, G., & Hensel, K. (2012). ‘Using Humor in Advertising: When Does it Work?’. Southern Business Review, 37(2), pp. 27-37.
Rocamora A., R. (2004). ‘Cognitive Trends in Virtual Marketing’. Mind Language and Metaphor. EuroConference on the Processing of Metaphor and Metonomy From Computers to Neurospychology. Granada.
Rogerson-Revell, P. (2007). ‘Humour in business: A double-edged sword. A study of humour and style shifting in intercultural business meetings’. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, pp. 4–28.
Ruch, W. (2002). ‘Humor. In Peterson, C. y Seligman M. E. P. (Eds.). The Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths. Cincinnati, OH: Values in Action Institute.
Ruch, W. (Ed.). (1998). The sense of humor: Explorations of a personality characteristic (Vol. 3). Walter de Gruyter.
Saucet, M., & Cova, B. (2015). ‘The secret lives of unconventional campaigns: Street marketing on the fringe’. Journal of Marketing Communications, 21(1), pp. 65-77.
Skalski, P., Tamborini, R., Glazer, E., & Smith, S. (2009). ‘Effects of humor on presence and recall of persuasive messages’. Communication Quarterly, 57(2), pp. 136-153.
Sliter, M., Kale, A., & Yuan, Z. (2014). ‘Is humor the best medicine? The buffering effect of coping humor on traumatic stressors in firefighters’. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2), pp. 257-272.
Smith, M., MacLeod, N., & Robertson, M. H. (2010). Key concepts in tourist studies. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Spielmann, N. & Delvert, M., (2014), ‘Adapted or standardized copy: Is non-cultural English the answer? ’Journal of Business Research, 67 (4), pp. 434-440.
Strick, M., Holland, R. W., van Baaren, R. B., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2012). ‘Those who laugh are defenseless: How humor breaks resistance to influence’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18(2), pp. 213-249.
Ulloth, J. K. (2002). ‘The benefits of humor in nursing education’. The Journal of Nursing Education, 41(11), pp. 476–481.
Valiente, S. (2016). Marcas sonrientes: humor y engagement en publicidad / Smiling brands: humour and engagement in promotion. Editorial UOC.
Vuorela, T. (2005). ‘Laughing matters: A case study of humor in multicultural business negotiations’. Negotiation Journal, 21(1), pp. 105–129.
Weinberger, M. G., & Gulas, C. S. (1992). ‘The impact of humor in advertising: A review’. Journal of Advertising, 21(4), pp. 35-59.
Weinberger, M. G., Gulas, C. S., & Weinberger, M. F. (2015). ‘Looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour’. International Journal of Advertising, 34(3), pp. 447-472.
Yeoman, I., Brass, D., & McMahon-Beattie, U. (2007). ‘Current issue in tourism: The authentic tourist’. Tourism Management, 28, pp. 1128–1138.