Amid the exciting Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, there was one commercial that stood out among them all. And it wasn’t because it was cute, funny or action-packed.
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Nationwide’s depressing Super Bowl ad proved that not all multimillion-dollar ads are there to make you laugh. The ad, which featured a young boy talking about everything he won’t be able to do in life because he died in an accident, was met with tons of backlash and even memes online.
https://twitter.com/biocow/status/562092487750078464https://twitter.com/jamescstatton/status/562092458444460034https://twitter.com/KeithMyers/status/562057401868623872https://twitter.com/brokemogul/status/562044455918653440https://twitter.com/robfee/status/562044666015907841
The backlash against Nationwide became so great, the company issued a statement late Sunday night:
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. Nationwide has been working with experts for more than 60 years to make homes safer. While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere.
But this was still funny:
Just bought a life insurance policy for my 4 year old nephew. #nationwide
— Neal Brennan (@nealbrennan) February 2, 2015
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