The Best Ideas Come as Jokes: Darby O’Brien and John Garvey on Why Fun Sells

David Ogilvy, one of the founding figures of modern advertising, once said the best ideas come as jokes, and urged creatives to make their thinking as funny as possible. GCAi founder John Garvey put that advice to advertising legend Darby O’Brien in a new video conversation, with one twist: both men’s voices have been dubbed in Irish accents.

The spoof is the point. Darby’s answer is simple: fun sells, and it’s how he has worked from the start. Fun is disarming, he says. It stops people, whether they’re scrolling social media, watching a TV spot, or paging through print.

Not every idea has to be funny. Depending on the concept, Darby notes, emotion can carry a message just as well. But when the goal is to get noticed, fun earns attention that earnest messaging often can’t.

Watch the full conversation on GCAi’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/GcZP2j57RlQ