Monday, February 2, 2015

Nationwide's Most Vile Personal Foul

Personal Foul—Making the Call
Against Nationwide

Personal Foul, Nationwide (Indefensible),
Penalty: Loss of Millions of Policies,
Automatic Ejection From the Insurance Game

We wore our protective gear because we almost always do. It’s part of recovering from the nasty pass life dealt us. We are the parents of dead children and we watched the Super Bowl last night. A championship game on TV should have been safe, but it wasn’t. Early in the game, we received a blow most foul when Nationwide aired their dead-child ad. Nationwide: You face-masked us in the worst possible way. You pulled our helmets off, stripping us bare, and then slapped us in the face.
Yes, accidents happen. We know that better than most. We certainly know it better than whomever your ad agency is. (By the way, fire them.) Bereaved parents of children who died as a result of accidents live with the results of such accidents every day. (My child did not die from an accident, unless one could call brain cancer an accident of nature.) You don’t need to remind us about accidents that claim the lives of children. You especially do not need to remind us on a Sunday evening when all we want to do is cheer on our favorite team.
Perhaps the American insurance-buying public will be the commissioner who sets some new rules and not only shuns you, but bans you. Nationwide, you had an opportunity to make amends for your foul. You didn’t and, instead, in the most blatant show of unsportsmanlike conduct, stood by your ad because accidents do happen.
I doubt it will be an accident when your shares drop and the number of policies you score falls to an abysmal level.
Shame on you, Nationwide. You’re definitely not on our side.

Thank you to Melissa Lima Panagos and my grandson, Mathew Wiley, for their assistance in football terminology.


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