Sunday, February 1, 2015

Nationwide Dead Kid Ad

Now that’s inspirational! This kid we see and like is dead. But we saw him catch cooties, so how do we know he didn’t die from cooties? Maybe they’re trying to cover it up! (I knew it! Vaccinate your kids against cooties!)

Well, you know, if he’s dead, at least he can haunt people and star in his own ghost show on cable TV! That’s the happy ending they should have put as the tag.

You know, this ad reminds me of the pro-life ad from the previous Super Bowl, only this would have worked better for a pro-life ad, I think, than what they did (although I must admit I don’t remember the pro-life Super Bowl ad all that well, and I am pro-choice); all they would have to do is have the kid say he can't experience any of these things because he's dead, "because you aborted me, mom."

Man, if you think the Nationwide ad got hated on, wait until someone runs a pro-life ad like it!

(BTW: Like I said, I'm pro-choice. I'm just ruminating on advertising strategy here. But like I said before, this strategy for a pro-life ad would likely be hated by everyone except for the prof-life crowd, and as such it would probably just succeed in preaching to the choir. And advertising is supposed to be persuasive as well as powerful.)

Here’s a story about the ad: