You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

Public Service Announcements can run into trouble when they try to be funny.

I get the impulse. Most commercials use some form of humor – it’s a tried and true way of getting attention and creating pleasant associations with whatever it is you’re selling. But when what you’re selling is a serious message about a serious issue, the humor can end up undermining what you have to say.

That goes double when the humor is built on irony, crafting a surface level message that’s the complete opposite of the ad’s real message. ‘Cause, given most people only pay half-attention to commercials (if that), the surface level message may well be all they walk away with.

And this week’s ad has that problem bad.

I’m not sure which PSA undermines its own message more: this, or the one with Gofer Cakes.