Seriously…who pays $4.5 million dollars and then runs a depressing ad – I mean THE most depressing ad possible – during the biggest sporting event of the year? Apparently Nationwide does, as part of their “Make Safe Happen” campaign. They featured a little boy who doesn’t get to grow up because he’s dead. What does insurance really have to do with safety? An insurance company like Nationwide wants you to be alive and act safely because it keeps their costs down. But their service to you is to help you out after the accident happens, not before. They are definitely not in the accident prevention genre. But if you don’t have accidents, they make more money, don't have to pay anything out…and that’s definitely in their best interest. So why spend $4.5 million (PLUS whatever it cost for an outside agency to put together the video for them…probably at least another $200,000) on an ad about a dead boy? During the Super Bowl?
Let’s look at another situation. My favorite band is Cheap Trick– a classic rock band from the ‘70s still making music well into their 60s. In 1997, they announced that the next single off their latest album was going to be “Shelter” a good, but downer of a song about a guy not having his father and mother any more (like the little boy, they are dead). They were going to release it at Christmas time. I know the band…I said it was a bad idea. Others chimed in…and thankfully they listened to us.
