@Nationwide Drowns in Anger

Posted on by Patty Odell

When you get your one $4.5 million shot to really show the world what a great brand you are during the world’s most watched sporting event, the Super Bowl, it’s a real bummer when you totally mess that up.

Nationwide Super Bowl Spot

Nationwide Insurance now has way more people talking negatively about it than it did before the kickoff yesterday. Its spot was designed to get people talking about child safety, but after the message showed an adorable, life-filled young boy talking about never getting to getting to travel the world or ride a bike because we’re all to presume that he drowned in the overflowing bathtub shown at the end of the spot, or ate poison, the opposite happened.

Some 64% of the more than 238,000 public social media mentions about Nationwide on Sunday were negative, according to data from Amobee Brand Intelligence that was reported by The Wall Street Journal. The posts were swift and fiery like the one from @justinJBasch that read: ‪@Nationwide‪, you were better off running your normal Peyton Manning commercials, that was just morbid, horrible, and depressing.

I always wonder how total blunders like this make it to the screen. Why didn’t someone along the way say, “Hey, I’m not so sure about this.” Yes, it’s a strong message. It certainly gets the point across, but there must have been a better way. Nationwide tried to explain itself late last night saying: it was meant “to start a conversation, not sell insurance.” Well, they got their wish.

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