Nationwide Insurance has recently been criticized for its Superbowl advertisement, which aired Sunday night. The commercial features a young boy narrating a line of lifetime milestones he can never reach because he is dead. After the boy’s narration, the viewers are shown a string of accidents, supposedly the possible causes of the boy’s death, such as a T.V. falling, laundry detergent pods strewn all over the floor, and a bathtub that has overflown. The main purpose of the advertisement, as the company claims, is to inform the public that preventable accidents are one of the main causes for child deaths.
On one hand, you have the people who claim the advertisement is unnecessarily graphic for a family event, like the Superbowl. A common complaint was having to sit through the commercial with children who may get the wrong impression.
Other critics claimed that the commercial was potentially upsetting to families watching the Superbowl who have lost a child in the past.
Other people praised the commercial, saying that, despite the depressing message of the commercial, it served the purpose of bringing awareness to child injury in the home. Many supporters of the commercial praised the shock factor of the advertising because it was effective in grabbing the viewers’ attention. Additionally, some parents even reported that the commercial made them think of safety within their own homes, going as far to move dangerous objects to a different area.
In the end, the commercial got viewers to talk about Nationwide. Whether the conversation was negative or positive depended on the perspective.
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