Mass Communication Commons^™

Effects Of Humor Use By Brands And Their Parody Accounts On Twitter, Nick Eckman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study examines the impact of humor use by brands and brand parody accounts on Twitter. Specifically, this research investigates how the type of humorous message and the message source influence perceptions of the brand, behavioral intentions toward the brand, and perceived parasocial interaction with the brand. It also examines the relationship between gender and perceptions of humor. Accordingly, this study uses a 2 (humor: wordplay vs. disparagement) x 2 (source: brand account vs. parody account) between-subjects online experiment to answer these questions. Key results suggest that parody Twitter accounts, particularly those using disparagement-style humor, may be advantageous to the …