The Aflac campaign apparently was born in the tradition of all memorable advertising lines, from “Ring around the collar” to “We’ll leave the light on for ya.” The American Family Life Assurance Company, a Fortune 500 company, was one of the largest suppliers of supplemental insurance policies (plugging the gaps in traditional insurance policies, usually for life-threatening illnesses or injuries), and had what to a small agency like Thaler’s seemed like a robust advertising budget of forty million dollars. (By contrast, a major drug company like AstraZeneca spends hundreds of millions annually to promote a single drug, Nexium.) When Thaler travelled to Columbus, Georgia, to meet with Aflac’s C.E.O., Dan Amos, he told her that what he wanted was for people to remember the name.

Thaler’s company was competing against another agency and had six weeks to devise a campaign. The creative team of Eric David and Tom Amico, who led the effort, were becoming frustrated. Walking to lunch one day, David silently repeated “Aflac, Aflac.” He started to say the word out loud. The more he said it, the more he realized he sounded like a duck. He ran back to the office and stood over Amico’s desk and, with a nasal effect, quacked, “Aflac! Aflac!” In five minutes, they wrote the first Aflac commercial, featuring two businessmen on a park bench. One mentions the value of supplemental insurance, and the other says, “What’s that?”

“Aflac,” quacks a duck.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:42 AM  |