How to Make a Spoof Ad

Commercials can be highly lucrative for product sales, and often the funnier the commercial, the bigger the hit. One winning type is the spoof commercial that pokes fun at both people and products. If you decide to make a spoof ad, you have a good chance of cleaning up in product sales.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Choose something or someone to spoof. Your own product can work, as seen in past promotions for male enhancement merchandise. If you prefer not to make a joke out of your own product, you can poke fun at just about anything from movies to dog breeds in your quest to amuse your consumer base.
2. Make a caricature of the subject you're spoofing. Exaggerate small details until they're larger than life. For example, use computer graphics to give a bunny shark teeth, or make a model who looks like a professional singer croon as if she can't carry a tune. To spoof a celebrity icon, enhance physical features to nearly impossible proportions. A spoof ad is only successful when the joke is immediately identifiable.
3. Use as many recognizable features as possible. For example, if you're spoofing a television show, include similar characters, scenes and dialog that the fans will quickly associate with the real thing.
4. Create an amusing soundtrack to go with your ad. Commonly known songs, like "Happy Birthday," or a television theme song with spoofed wording are instantly recognizable to consumers.
5. Put it all together and give a viewing to a test audience. Use the feedback to tweak the promotion into a final ad campaign.

Tips & Warnings

• Use extreme caution when spoofing people or products that aren't your own. Defamation suits can be costly to fight in court and very expensive to lose. Make certain your spoofed ad is in good taste and without obvious malice, then run it by your attorney before running it on the air.