Opinion: Nationwide’s ad was supposed to harsh your Super Bowl buzz
Nationwide’s “Make Safe Happen” ad has gotten people talking. And that talk has been about how dark and depressing Nationwide’s Super Bowl commercial was. The commercial, which aims to raise awareness about accidental home deaths for children, features a young boy talking from “beyond the grave” about all the things he would have done – if he hadn’t died in an accident at home.
But while most people are claiming the ad was depressing and morbid, Nationwide says that was the point. In an interview with Fast Company, Nationwide’s chief marketing officer Matt Jauchius said:
[su_quote] The purpose of the ad is to, in a way, stage an intervention on this issue. 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. [/su_quote]BROUGHT TO YOU BY
