How many times has a humorous radio or TV ad caused you to
actually buy the advertised product? While some of the most
successful ads have used humor - Wendy's "Where's the beef?" ads
for example - far too many "funny" ads utterly fail to generate
increased business or ROI; more than half the ads on any given
Super Bowl fall into this category - anyone remember the Petco
sock puppet?

For radio and TV ads, humor or surprise serve the same purpose
as eye-catching graphics in a Yellow Pages ad. A humorous ad
will actually get you to consciously listen to the ad - and this
is a good thing in an age when more and more of us are tuning
out (physically and mentally) advertising. But, when the
humor is a separate element from the message of the ad,
prospects remember the joke but not the business, and the ad
budget is wasted on entertaining prospects rather than
persuading them to buy.

So does this mean Yellow Page advertisers shouldn't worry about
eye-catching graphics? Of course not! Yellow Pages advertising
is one step up over other mediums because rather than tuning the
ads out as background noise, prospects are actually looking for
them! But you still have to break through the clutter. Your
Yellow Page ad has to have the design chops to visually
overpower the other ads, relegating the competition into the
background as the prospect focuses on what YOU have to say.

The point is that eye-popping graphics are discarded by the
reader when they are gratuitous. The message carried by the
graphic has to be tied into the emotional needs of the customer
and has to reinforce and lead into the persuasive message of the
copy. Otherwise, your Yellow Page advertising budget will be
wasted as people smile at your graphic and then move on to call
someone else.

A genuine Yellow Page ad design expert doesn't think of your ad
in terms of separate elements. They don't use separate or
stand-alone strategies to design your graphic, then use another
strategy for the headline, and another for the copy, etc. The
"successful" Yellow Page ad design process simply isn't modular;
all of the elements have to work together to move your reader to
call YOU first!

So forget about "catching their eye" with graphics and THEN
persuading prospects with the copy. The graphic elements of your
ad have to catch their eye WHILE SIMULATNEOUSLY establishing
an emotional connection with and persuading your customer.

Also, notice I said href="http://ezinearticles.com/?Yellow-Page-Ad-Design-Problems?-T
hen-Why-On-Earth-Should-You-Rely-On-A-Salesman?&id=301815">"graph
ic elements" and not graphics. The font size and style,
spacing, proper use of negative or white space, and eye-flow
contribute as much to the visual appeal of your Yellow Page ad
as the pictures. Make sure your Yellow Page ad design
"professional" has the design background to successfully
orchestrate these elements for maximum impact!

Are you contemplating humor in your next Yellow Page ad design?
Remember, there's nothing funny about wasting ad dollars on a
loser Yellow Page ad that will run for an entire year. A
holistic approach that considers both the emotional needs of
your target audience AND the interdependence of its' parts is
crucial to your success.

About the author:
Explosive Yellow Pages advertising...Yellow Pages advertising
design that works! Call John Morana at 800-726-7006 for expert
advice and a href="http://www.max-effect.com/free_yellow_pages_ad_eval.html">F
REE no-obligation Yellow Page ad evaluation. Learn how to
maximize your Yellow Pages advertising ROI at href="http://www.max-effect.com">http://www.max-effect.com