In a poll given to the current occupants of The College Voice office and the Internet, four editors reached a consensus that Nationwide Insurance won the title of Most Disturbing and Manipulative commercial for this year. What began as a typical run of the mill emotional appeal to childhood adventure and hope quickly spiraled into something much darker. While it is sad on its own to encounter a child that already seems to be fully aware of the fact that the world is a cynical, unfriendly place that crushes dreams on the reg, the folks over at the Nationwide Ad Agency felt that this wasn’t quite at the level of heart-wrenching they were going for. No, they really had to shine this year, Deflationgate and Katy Perry shark minions be damned. So how did they decide to do this? Simple. By introducing an adorable, mop headed kid who just wants cooties and to sail the world with the Budweiser dog but can’t. You know, because he’s dead.
As someone that only watches the Super Bowl for the commercials and promise of free snacks wherever it is being screened, I’m pretty much all for competing homages to capitalism. Brady Bunch Snickers commercial? Nailed it. But this Nationwide commercial was ridiculous not only in how much time it clearly took to edit together artistic shots of overflowing bathtubs and smashed widescreens, but in the fact that they are using childhood death as a type of cry bait to scare people into buying their product.
In the interest of fairness, it is important to note that the commercial (probably) came from a good place. It is the crowning jewel of Nationwide’s Make Safe Happen campaign, which according to their website, is an initiative to provide resources to help curtail high numbers of child deaths in preventable accidents. The project is fully committed to keeping kids safe, an admirable goal.
But was this the best way of going about it? Public Relations as a field can be a paradox. Nationwide first opted for a humorous commercial that featured a Mindy Kaling that believed she was invisible trying to kiss Matt Damon. Not the most memorable commercial, but still charming because Mindy Kaling is Mindy Kaling and everything she does is charming. They were clearly going for shock factor in their second ad. Considering the already large dearth of twit-erature on the topic, they already got people talking. But are we talking about the cause or the ad itself? Which is more important?
Nationwide is on your side? No. Chicken Parm you taste so good? Hm, still not right. Nationwide your kid just died. There we go. •
