I don't know how you feel about receiving a load of forwarded emails with jokes from friends, but it is my least favorite piece of electronic communication.

The worst kind are the spiritual messages that "require" you forward to seven, eleven, fourteen of your closest friends so your prayers will be answered in 24 hours.

I feel a tiny sense of guilt as I delete, frequently without reading, the prayerful messages. Many have great ideas or thoughts or references to scripture, but the thought that I'll get my wish, like rubbing a Genie's lamp, by forwarding the message is hard to swallow.

But today I opened the message. It was from a friend that rarely forwards an email message and in her subject line she wrote that it was funny and included a good marketing message.

I'm always up for a unique way to market a product.

Have you seen it? It is a commercial for microwavable Heinz soup.

Well, I'm still laughing.

I strongly believe their target audience is female because I highly doubt men will find the commercial funny.

So it made me think - is it worth it to use humor to market your product and in the process alienate 50% of your target audience? Or were they so sure that their customer was female they were willing to take the risk.

Is that wise marketing?

Click here to see the commercial.