Making It Funny: An Interview with Sally Fay

If you’re like most people, you flip to the corporate cartoons as soon as your Harvard Business Review arrives in its little plastic bag. But corporate cartoons aren’t the only place humor can work. Writer, playwright and lyricist Sally Fay has added large doses of humor in all types of corporate settings, including in her current work writing marketing and corporate communications for a wide range of business clients. In this interview, she shares her thoughts, advice and stories on increasing communications effectiveness with humor. 

How do you know when humor in corporate communications will be appreciated, or even accepted?
The culture of a company will determine if humor has a place in its communications, and, if so, what type of humor and how much. You can bet there’s lots more humor making the rounds at rollicking upstart companies than there is at IBM.

Why is that?
Humor is seen as risky in many if not most corporate settings. The reason is fear—fear of rocking the boat, fear of reprisals, fear of the top honcho not laughing. It’s too bad, really, because humor, as we all know from advertising, is an excellent tool for making a message memorable and can be an effective morale-builder.

"The culture of a company will determine if humor has a place in its communications, and, if so, what type of humor and how much."

How does humor help morale and make messages more memorable?
We tend to remember funny things, but besides that, the use of humor carries the sub-textual message that a company’s leaders have a sense of humor, which is great for morale and humanizes senior management to the troops.

In a slightly trickier vein, humor can soften a negative message or help communicate a message that is awkward when communicated in the company's traditional manner.

Should the use of humor be limited to consumer communications, or can you see instances where humor in B2B communications can work?
For 20 years, my two partners and I had a successful career writing and performing original musical-comedy shows for corporations, many of them targeted to our client’s clients: a magazine did a show for its advertisers, a furniture manufacturer for its distributors, a car company for its dealers.

In preparation, we performed due diligence and found plenty of humor in these B2B relationships that was appreciated by both our client and by audience members. Poking fun at culture, foibles, the overall industry and prevailing beefs on both sides essentially says, “We can all laugh at ourselves because it’s true.”

What are some of the ground rules for using humor?
Using humor in corporate settings takes good instincts about parameters: what’s going to be acceptable in a given situation. It also helps to understand and accept that the material is going to make its way through rounds of approvals—people in a corporation have to cover themselves.

Don’t put a client in an awkward position by pushing the envelope too far; take the challenge and come up with something clever and on-target without scaring anyone. Many of our clients rehired us—a testament to our honed instincts and their belief that humor could get them the results they were seeking.

"Poking fun at culture, foibles, the overall industry and prevailing beefs on both sides essentially says, 'We can all laugh at ourselves because it’s true.' "

How about an example where the use of humor went particularly well?
We did a very successful safety training film for International Paper in the format of a talk show, “Warehouse to Your House,” with a Johnny Carson-type host and multiple guests, all played by the three of us.

The challenge was driving home critical safety issues to workers with low reading skills sitting around in the lunch rooms of rural paper mills. What could we do to keep them from getting up and walking out?

We researched what these workers went through on the job and what they needed to know, and reflected it back to them with humor. Some of the characters we came up with for our “show” took on subsequent teaching responsibilities as animated characters in client-generated workbooks.

Was there a time when it did not work well?
Remember what I said about the top honcho not laughing? Two instances gave rise to my Rule #1 of corporate communications: “Don’t surprise anyone, especially the CEO.”

In the first, a new and boorishly insensitive CEO introduced us by saying he was prepared to fire the guy in charge if the show wasn’t funny—that remark basically froze the audience for the entire 30 minutes.

The other example was a show for a big Wall St. firm feting its top brokers. The target audience enjoyed themselves mightily, but the CEO, who had been kept in the dark about the show, was not laughing. We were paid our full fee, but the show was “killed” after one performance. 

So don’t believe it when they tell you, “He/she’s gonna love it.” Make sure they do!

"Two instances gave rise to my Rule #1 of corporate communications: 'Don’t surprise anyone, especially the CEO.' ”

What is your best advice for communications people who would like to apply more humor in communications, but aren't sure where to start?
If you don’t have a sense of a company’s culture, look through its materials and its advertising. It won’t take long to discern whether humor would be welcome. If you think there’s a chance, put out some feelers.

Give your client choices in the copy and make one of them humorous. See how that’s received and go from there. If the humorous option is shot down, listen for valuable feedback about where and when you might try again.

"Give your client choices in the copy and make one of them humorous. See how that’s received and go from there."

Overall, what does it take to be successful in applying humor in corporate communications?
Using humor in corporate communications takes patience, a healthy dose of empathy and an understanding of the limits of general corporate culture.

Remember that corporations are made up of people, and most people appreciate humor. That keeps me trying. I have witnessed humor’s powerful effect on morale, and what company these days can’t use a lift like that?

Remember that corporations are made up of people, and most people appreciate humor.

Contact Sally Fay at sallyrfay@aol.com