Procter and Gamble is known as a marketing powerhouse and no novice when it comes to social media.

So it makes you wonder how one of its divisions could have stuck its foot so deeply into its mouth on Twitter.

Vicks, maker of NyQuil, DayQuil and ZzzQuil tweeted the following

SLEEP LIKE he finally proposed. And you have been dating for a decade. #SleepLike #engaged #shesaidyes pic.twitter.com/r3MQNNjZM6

— ZzzQuil (@ZzzQuil) January 23, 2015

and was lambasted for 19 hours by women and men alike.

While the tweet sucks as an attempt at humor, it is right in line with two TV ads currently running.

In case you aren’t familiar, one is for dads and one is for moms.

The dads take NyQuil so they can go to work, while the moms take DayQuil so they can stay home and chauffeur the kids around.

Seems like all three would play better in the 1950s than now.

I suppose you could blame Vicks advertising agency for them, but Vicks marketing must have signed off on them.

It just goes to show that even the savviest companies can trip if they lose site of who their customers are, as opposed to who they were.

Image credit: theimpulsivebuy

When you want your people to do, or not do, something how do you approach the topic?

• Plead
• Make statements
• Pronounce edicts
• Create policy
• Threaten as in ‘or else’

When presenting, selling or just speaking are you serious, passionate, off-the-cuff or pragmatic?

No matter your approach, learning the principals of comedy will improve the results.

…skills that all good comedians know—such as storytelling, reading nonverbal cues, engaging an audience, dealing with hostility and silence, and more.

When I was a recruiter I always started my cold calls with the same words—“Hi, I’m Miki Saxon and I’m a headhunter;” they always laughed and when someone laughs you know they are listening.

Like this sign, humor gets more attention than threats, a more positive reaction and better compliance.

Humor can pierce attitudes and pry open minds.

Using humor isn’t about telling jokes; it’s about finding lighter ways to engage your audience even when the subject is serious.

Few people would find the death of the groom during sex on his wedding night to be funny, but if you remember Private Benjamin with Goldie Hawn it was hilarious.

Humor is in the delivery as opposed to the subject.

Best of all, using humor is not an inborn skill; anybody can learn how to do it.

Maybe not well enough to appear on Saturday Night Live, but well enough to motivate your team or close a sale.

Flickr image credits: Duck: Tambako The Jaguar; Sign: Angela Schmeidel Randall