We all know about the duck mascot for Aflac, and watching football lately has reminded me of this insurance bird. And I was wondering if there might be an upcoming ad campaign someday where the Aflac duck gets another bird friend to help him shill for Aflac. At first I thought of a swan, but then it hit me: it really ought to be a peacock. Why a peacock? Well, because their bird call sounds like a person yelling: "Help!" (Don't ask me how I know.*)
So in ads with the duck and the peacock, the announcer could say that Aflac will help you, and if you need help, you can always count on Aflac, etc., and they could talk about all the ways Aflac can help. And whenever they refer to Aflac, it would be the duck saying it, and whenever it was "Help!", it would be the peacock. And then, as per usual, the duck would get injured with a football or whatever they usually do, and then the peacock could see the hurt duck and point at him and say: "Help!" Or maybe the peacock could raise that huge train of tail feathers and catch the duck when a football makes him go flying, causing the duck to say: "Thanks for the 'Help'!" I just think that a bird that cries "Help!" might be even better for selling insurance than a duck, and with them both together, the possibilities are virtually limitless. And they could each have their own campaign, too. (Also, Aflac could use the peacock as another insurance agency's {fictitious} mascot, and say that while Aflac gives you money for bills, all other insurance agencies do is yell for help. You get the idea.)
Of course, the best use for this new peacock I can currently think of would be for an ad to show someone who is injured, and have them get bills they can't afford to pay, and say: "I'm hurt and I can't work: how am I going to pay all these bills?" And then the peacock could show up and scream: "Help!" And then the Aflac duck would show up with a wad of cash, and therein the commercial could show how Aflac can help us, and why we might want it.
BTW: I am on record here as saying I think the Aflac duck is a bit of creative laziness, created due to the fact that Aflac kind of sounds like "Quack, quack." People have told me that the Aflac duck is one of the most recognizable advertising mascots, but I counter that it took them years to make him so, and for many years after that, most viewers still had no idea what Aflac did or sold, even thought they recognized the duck. My point was that if they had come up with a mascot that made more sense for insurance than a duck, people wouldn't have had to have it drilled into their heads for years before they understood what it was all about. Because after all, when an ad makes people remember a thing in the ad, but not what the ad is advertising for, then it's kind of wasted money, in my view.
* (Okay, I know this, because my mother told me that when she and my father moved into their first apartment after getting married, he went off to work, and she was left behind in this new town and new apartment, and she heard this cry calling for help again and again. So, naturally, being a concerned citizen, and probably feeling scared herself in unfamiliar surroundings, she called the police; and when they arrived, they checked it out, and it was a peacock that was yelling: "Help! Help!" Well, I never forgot that story, so here is the result.)
