A family surveys the complete destruction of their home in this commercial for Nationwide Insurance. They stand there, looking around, getting choked up at the absolute destruction of their home and property, and then we see that there’s another guy there with them: he’s a Nationwide insurance agent, and he says: “We’ll help you make things right”, or something to that effect, scamming them into believing that an insurance company will actually follow through on their obligation, rather than have their army of lawyers find every possible way for them to weasel their way out of paying them anything for their legitimate claim, like a real insurance company might more realistically behave in real life. Ah, the misleading nature of insurance advertisements!
What I would have loved to see in this ad would have been to have the family seem upset, but to have the Nationwide representative get so emotionally distraught, that the homeowners end up comforting him. So the insurance guy is crying and sobbing and whining because he’s going to get in trouble for making the insurance company pay off on a claim for a change, and he seems so devastated and abject in his behavior, the homeowners comfort him and end up agreeing not to submit a claim after all, since they don’t want to get him in trouble. So they say they’ll get by somehow, and they’ve always worked through the hard times before, so they’ll make it this time too, yadda yadda. So the crying insurance agent leaves, crying as he drives away. But then, just as he gets out of sight of the homeowners who have lost everything, his crying turns to evil, maniacal laughter, as he gloats triumphantly over how he’s managed to cheat another policyholder, and how he’s the best scumbag welcher there is, and how he’s sure to get a huge bonus for sparing the company from this whopper of a legitimate payout. That’s how insurance companies work in real life, so it would be nice to see them shown honestly for a change.
But maybe it wouldn’t be subterfuge and total dishonesty like that. Maybe I’m being unfair to insurance companies with my silly parody of their ad. Perhaps the true version of this ad would have the insurance agent be completely honest with this couple and say: “This looks really bad, but all the same, I’ll work hard to find every loophole possible to avoid paying even one cent more than we legally have to. So you’ll get something, but it won’t be much, and it will be far less than your policy leads you to believe you ought to be getting. But don’t blame me; I’m just doing my job!” In any case, it’s been my experience, and that of everyone I know, that when it’s time to pay them, insurance companies are very insistent that you pay them the full amount on time (or else!); but when it’s time for them to pay you, well, there are all kinds of reasons and excuses for why they don’t have to. Oh, and if they do pay you, they drag it out forever so that it doesn’t end up helping you when you need it anyway. It’s a big scam, the insurance business; or at least it feels like one sometimes. But hey: they’ve got to pay those huge executive salaries, bonuses, and golden parachutes somehow! After all, it’s only fair that rich people should get richer off of regular people for nothing. I mean, right?
But this is just a joke, and I’m not trying to smear or slander Nationwide insurance. After all, maybe they’re the 100% reliable and honest company, and it’s all the others that give the insurance business a bad name. I don’t know much about Nationwide because I don’t have insurance with them, so for all I know, they could be completely honest and dependable. But then again, they are an insurance company, so maybe not.
Here’s the ad:
