Back to black – humour, that is, amid COVID-19

As deeper questions began to be asked around COVID-19 coronavirus responses, a few ‘ads’ caught our eye for their deployment of humour in the still-prevalent life-under-lockdown scenario.

Let’s take it from the past to the present to the future with three campaigns from Spain, the USA and Australia respectively.

“Is that the enemy? Can you stop the war a moment?”

You'll see all kinds of processed meat products on Spanish supermarket shelves by the Campofrio group. Its down-to-earth, familiar tone is highlighted in this piece (in Spanish). which resurrects a well-loved Spanish comedian and director, Miguel Gila (died 2001), delivering one of his surreal war monologues.

The soldier's asking for the war to be put on hold because there are so many other things we need to do, like cook for our old folk, call our friends, help the neighbour with shopping and so on.

The fact that Gila himself fought in Spain's 1936-1939 civil war and survived imprisonment and a firing squad (the shooters had been drinking, he said) adds an emotional depth to the message being revived here amid the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Spain, at time of writing, was the worst-affected country in Europe, with more than 17,000 deaths reported and stringent lockdowns in place nationwide. Gila's father died two months before his 1919 birth, after being refused hospital admittance for treatment of injuries sustained in an accident because of a shortage of beds - a situation the satirist recounted decades later, noting that "hospitals still don't have enough beds".

“Sext us, instead”

We've all been there - or will go there at some point. It's that late-night / nostalgic / lonely / too much booze moment when we snatch up our 'phone and text the ex.... In the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdowns, a New York-based condom company urged us to resist the urge to solve isolation this way and 'Sext us instead'.

They were even giving away free condoms, "as long as stocks la..." Okay, all gone. What do you think of the approach with no approach? Fun way to tackle the lust and loneliness that can strike us all at the best of times? Does safe sexting help us realise that staying at home can still be sexy?

Tight shorts and tall tales

Rugby fans will feel a particular affinity with this one, called 'The Unbelievable Kick', for Australian beer Furphy. The noun furphy is defined as "A rumour or tall tale, often exaggerated and shared".

Also refreshing suds, obvs. Do you find wish your bar server had a little more of this kind of gift of the gab? Or are you more of a 'cheers mate', pay-and-run kind at the bar who couldn’t even watch the whole 1'15" ad through?

Either way, it's bound to strike a few chords for those of us looking forward to supporting all the bars and pubs which are such a vital element of a vibrant social life as they eventually emerge from the closures instigated as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus global precautions.

ends

Keywords: Humorous advertising, Campofrio, Miguel Gila, sexting, sex and lockdown, Trojan Condoms, COVID 19 coronavirus, The Unbelievable Kick, Furphy, 72andSunny New York, rugby ads, Thinkerbell, McCann