From AIB to BeerBiceps: Do Brands Risk It All by endorsing Dark Humor? (Torres et al., 2024)

Welcome toRevise and Resubmit, the podcast where research meets real-world impact.

Today, we’re diving into the fine line between humor and harm in brand marketing. Imagine scrolling through social media and seeing brands throwing playful insults at each other—like fast-food chains roasting their rivals or tech companies taking jabs at competitors. Some laugh. Some cringe. But what if I told you that your reaction isn’t just personal—it’s scientific?

In a world where brands fight for attention, humor—especiallydark humor—has become a powerful weapon. But does roasting your competitors make a brand cooler and more sincere? Or does it alienate potential customers? That’s exactly what today’s research explores.

In their latest study,Jose Luis Saavedra Torres, Ashok Bhattarai, Anh Dang, and Monika Rawal, published in theJournal of Research in Interactive Marketing byEmerald Insights, uncover how personality and age shape our responses to brand-to-brand roasting. If you’re young and extroverted, you might love it. If you’re older and introverted, you might not. So, should brands keep the jokes coming, or are they playing with fire?

Stay with us as we break down the findings and what they mean for businesses, marketers, and evenyou as a consumer.

A huge thank you to the authors andEmerald Insights for this fascinating research.

If you enjoy exploring the impact of academic studies, don’t forget to subscribe toRevise and Resubmit on Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Apple Podcasts. And for more insightful breakdowns, check out ourWeekend Researcher YouTube channel.

Now, here’s the real question:When does roasting go from being funny… to being a brand’s biggest mistake?

Reference

Saavedra Torres, J. L., Bhattarai, A., Dang, A., & Rawal, M. (2024). Do you want to be roasted? The boundaries of using dark humor as a brand-to-brand communication strategy. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 18(2), 220-237. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-12-2022-0370

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