Child Safety Ad Gone Wrong?

Nationwide Insurance ran into some social media backlash to its Super Bowl commercial that the company says was intended to spark a “fierce conversation” about preventing childhood deaths.

The insurer issued a statement explaining and defending the ad.

The ad depicted a little boy talking about how he will never kiss a girl, ride a bike, fly, travel the globe, or marry. Why? Because he died from a preventable household accident.

The ad is titled, “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up.”

The company was promoting its “Make Safe Happen” program about ways to increase safety at home. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preventable injuries are the number one cause of death of children.

Judging from social media complaints, childhood death is apparently not a conversation people want during Super Bowl parties. Bloomberg reported that about 64 percent of the social media buzz was negative, the worst of any advertising in the Super Bowl, according to Amobee, a digital marketing platform.

However, the ad apparently worked to the extent that the company said thousands went online to its Make Safe Happen website.

Matt Jauchius, Nationwide’s chief marketing officer, told NPR’s Morning Edition on Feb. 3, the ad accomplished what the insurer expected.

“We wanted to stage an intervention to start a conversation, and we knew if the creative went too far it would shut people down and there would be no conversation; we did not do that,” Jauchius said. “But on the other hand if we were too light and didn’t come out strong enough in a Super Bowl it might not make anyone talk about things.”

Nationwide issued this statement about the childhood death ad after the Super Bowl: “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. 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. … While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere.”

Jauchius ended his NPR interview with this: “If we save one child as a result of what we did in the Super Bowl, it is more than worth it.”