Allstate Ad Takes Aim at Financial Services

Better Hands: Allstate Ad Takes Aim at Financial Services

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By David Connell

A new look at how the insurance and financial services industries are portrayed in the media.

This month, I am starting a new column for advisortoday.com called "Media Watch." It will examine how the insurance and financial services industries are portrayed--or in some cases portray themselves--in the media. Every month I'll look to advertising, television, film and literature to see how they are treating insurance and financial services firms and those who work for them.

I hope this column will help you place your career and business within the context of the greater world. You will see how the media and the home office are shaping the way your customers view you and your services. And, perhaps, I will introduce you to some new books, films or television shows that might just inspire, entertain or enrage your business sense.

Allstate ad touts financial services

If you have been selling products from Allstate, you may be wondering how the company is letting consumers know that it sells more than just insurance. It used the Olympics to debut an advertising campaign that features the company's financial planning products. The centerpiece is a new ad, titled "Tree," featuring Julian Lennon (son of John) singing the Beatles song "When I'm 64." (Click here to view the ad, scroll to bottom of page and select viewing method.)

The Beatles song evokes the theme of retirement and targets Baby Boomers who grew up listening to the Fab Four.

While the Lennon song plays in the background, a newly married couple stands together in front of a large tree with a grand hilltop view. Using visual effects, the ad takes you through the couple's life, from starting a family, watching their children grow and finally retirement. The commercial also uses cutaways and titles to stress Allstate's traditional product lines, such as auto, home and life insurance. These titles then serve to stress Allstate's newest offerings in retirement and financial planning services.

The 30-second spot is effective in touting these financial products on several levels. The Beatles song evokes the theme of retirement and targets Baby Boomers who grew up listening to the Fab Four. The ad also drives home the idea of family and serenity with the happy couple, smiling children and the consistent, natural setting.

Finally, Allstate achieves strong brand recognition throughout the spot by including its name or the idea of "good hands" in each of the ad's titles. This is particularly well done in a dissolve featuring the words "Allstate, auto, home, life, retirement," which stresses the featured product--retirement planning--but also mentions the company's core product lines.

John Q points camera, revolver, at HMOs

The new film John Q. instantly reminded me of the joke, "You can't spell propaganda without PR." The film chronicles the desperation of a decent, working class man who takes a hospital hostage after his company's HMO won't pay for his son's heart transplant. At first blush, it looks like the biggest PR problem for the insurance industry since Helen Hunt vividly described managed care with a string of expletives in the film As Good as it Gets.

But John Q. smacks of pure, transparent propaganda. Its main protagonist is a can't-do-wrong Everyman, the son is insufferably cute, the wife incomprehensibly loyal, the hospital administrator uncompromisingly cold, the list goes on. The devices in this film are so one-sided and so pat, the audience can't help but see through its devices. When John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) takes the hospital hostage, director Nick Cassavetes and screenwriter James Kearns refuse to show the other side of the moral coin. He is just, the film insists, because he is trying to save his son. He treats his hostages impeccably and there is no internal conflict within John, or his captives, regarding the fact that he is wielding a gun and threatening to take lives.

While John Q. seems like bad news for the insurance industry, agents should be able to bring in new clients with its message. The underlying facts of the film--that HMO coverage is woefully inadequate--should resonate with clients thinking about coverage outside the workplace. It should also have small businesses rethinking their HMO policies. John Q. pulled in $20.6 million at the box office the weekend it opened so you can be sure there are millions of people rethinking health care, the chance of family emergency and HMO coverage.

Caught on the tube

Much is made of the money companies spend on Super Bowl ads and this year, with prices averaging just under $2 million for a 30-second spot, the news was simply more of the same. According to USA Today, however, Charles Schwab's money may have been well spent. The company's ad, featuring Baseball Hall of Fame's Hank Aaron advising future Hall-of-Famer Barry Bonds to retire, was the fourth most popular spot to run during the Super Bowl, the paper said. It was the only commercial that managed to crack juggernaut Anheuser-Busch's stranglehold on the top five positions.

H&R Block's vision of boring dress-shirt clad IRS men devising tricky tax laws did not fare so well, failing to break into the top 40 on the paper's ad meter. To conduct the survey, USA Today invited 118 adult viewers to its headquarters in McLean, Va., and polled their immediate reaction to the Super Bowl commercials.

Web Links

To view Allstate's "Tree" advertisement click here, scroll to bottom of page and select viewing method.
"John Q" Official Movie Site
USA Today "Ad Tracker" Standings

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