He also used Twitter ads to promote a book by venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki called "Enchantment, " targeting users who expressed interest in the book's topic, persuasion tactics, by tweeting about it or searching for related information using Twitter's search feature.

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"A lot of people think you have to get people angry to really move votes, " said political scientist Kerwin Swint, a professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia who wrote a book that examines political humor in ads.

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In 1963, British advertising pioneer David Ogilvy, in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man, argued that ads should be all business, selling products by informing consumers rather than entertaining them.

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