Nationwide is on your side—but is anyone Nationwide's side after last night?
The insurance company debuted two commercials during Super Bowl XLIX. The first ad, the lighthearted and well-received "Invisible Mindy," starred Mindy Kaling and included a cameo by Matt Damon. The second commercial, "Make Safe Happen," showed a young boy listing the milestones he never reached due to his premature death. The grim ad was meant to be provocative, and Twitter reacted accordingly.
After Sunday's game, Nationwide issued a statement explaining its intention.
"Preventable injuries around the home are the leading cause of childhood deaths in America. Most people don't know that. Nationwide ran an ad during the Super Bowl that started a fierce conversation. The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance. We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us-the safety and well being of our children," the company said, via NBC News. "We knew the ad would spur a variety of reactions. In fact, thousands of people visited MakeSafeHappen.com, a new website to help educate parents and caregivers with information and resources in an effort to make their homes safer and avoid a potential injury or death."
"Nationwide has been working with experts for more than 60 years to make homes safer," the company continued. "While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere." Chief marketing officer Matt Jauchius went into further detail, explaining, "Since 2007 we've made use of other media partners to get our message across, but when we were thinking of launching Make Safe Happen, creating awareness, and showcasing our brand, the Super Bowl is a great media platform to achieve those goals. It's singular in its size, the pinnacle of live TV, and so many people watching to actually see the commercials, so it's a great place to re-invigorate this cause for us, launch the campaign and make more than 100 million aware of the issue and the app."
Jauchius knew that having a dead child talk to viewers from beyond the grave would be divisive. "The purpose of the ad is to, in a way, stage an intervention on this issue," he told Fast Company. "We're serious about it and we wanted the ad to reflect that. The question was, 'What level of intervention did we want to stage?' If you go funny or lighthearted with this topic, it might offend people, but beyond that it might not be effective in breaking through and creating awareness of this problem. We chose a more serious tone precisely because it will be so different than most commercials during the Super Bowl. We went that way to create awareness in consumers' minds that this is the number one killer of children in the US. Most people don't know that." According to Jauchius, "It's a hard thing to talk about, but it's an even harder thing to have happen, so we wanted to make a serious and appropriate ad."
So, did Nationwide get its message across?
In less than 12 hours, "Make Safe Happen" has been viewed 1.44 million times on YouTube.
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