The past year-plus has been good creatively in an unlikely product category–insurance. There’s the Farmers Insurance “Lord of Mishap” spot from Campbell Ewald, the Liberty Mutual pay-it-forward campaign from Hill Holliday and Travelers’ “Snowball” out of Fallon. “Snowball” not only garnered a primetime Emmy nomination but also was one of the entries helping Dante Ariola of MJZ to earn the DGA Award this year as best commercial director of 2006.
However, even the most stellar creative cannot buck reality. Consider Southern California, which has been hit hard by wildfires, with nearly 2,000 homes destroyed.
Thousands of claims have been filed as insurance companies will hopefully make residents victimized by the fire reasonably close to being whole again.
Yet beyond the immediate recovery and rebuilding efforts, there have been some disturbing rumblings. For one, some say that homeowners will find that claims they submit to insurers will result in higher rates or possibly dropped policies.
Whether this is fair or not is subject to debate. On one hand, the risks are high in insuring homes in areas prone to wildfires. On the flip side, according to reports in the Los Angeles Times, major carriers have been turning annual profits of $5 billion apiece from their home insurance policy business in California, translating into a staggeringly lucrative margin and a more than ample reserve to deal with major disasters and still turn a healthy profit.
Meanwhile there’s word that all claims end up in privately run databases that are accessed by the insurance industry to determine what rates they’ll charge–or if they’ll provide coverage at all. Thus a claim filed with one insurer can be used by another to raise premiums or deny coverage. Even if someone has never filed a claim, that person could face exorbitant rates or the prospect of no protection if he or she has bought a house where someone else submitted past claims–be it for a fire, an earthquake or anything.
Still there’s the school of thought that if a property has proven to be a risk, then insurers have the right to take that into account. The databases, though, don’t reflect if the new owners have made improvements to the property to mitigate that risk.
In the wake of the California wildfires, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on the U.S. Senate floor that it’s become “pretty clear to me that we have to develop some catastrophic government-helped insurance. Allstate Insurance Company pulled out of California–because they said it’s catastrophe-prone…Allstate doesn’t want any part of it. So they are not insuring in California any longer [writing no more new homeowner policies]. Companies must not be allowed to cherry-pick the United States and only insure areas that are safe and secure, and say to other areas, ‘You’re on your own.'”
Thus the dilemma for agency creatives is simply no matter how great your work, how classic the slogan, it can be made to look foolish in light of reality. Consider the query which tags many Allstate commercials today: “Are you in good hands?”
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More