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Hello, welcome to the final programme in this current series.

Now, think of occasions when you've seen advertising and found it downright enjoyable,

not an irritation getting in the way, but where the advertising itself is a satisfying product.

I'm willing to bet most of the ads you could

conjure up in your mind are funny. The famous smash one where the Martians laugh at the

backward humans still peeling real potatoes. Or happiness is a cigar called Hamlet. The Carling

black label, Dam Busters one. And I also suspect that the examples that come to mind are from

decades past, not the ones that are forced upon you before you watch a video clip. Well, today,

on the bottom line, we're going to ask, is advertising less funny than it used to be? We're

going to explore humour as a tool in selling and ask what the changing use of wit tells us about modern advertising.

I have the usual number of guests with me, three. They're not here to make us laugh,

but they should be able to offer some insights into the minds of advertisers and brands.

And first up, Rory Sutherland, no stranger to the bottom line, Rory, I'm glad to say,

veteran ad man, vice president of Ogilvy, Rory, I'm glad to say, veteran ad man,

Vice President of Ogilvy, UK. And I should say, you gave a speech in Cannes recently.

What was that about? Because that brought up the subject of humour in advertising.

Yes, what I mentioned in passing was that I'm slightly concerned by the decline in

humorous advertising. I think it's often replaced what was

amusement for a kind of worthiness. And it bothers me, particularly if it's kind of emblematic of

something that's happening in wider business culture, which is that we're becoming intensely

over-serious about everything we do for the simple reason that as David Ogilvy,

...