Usually, when an insurance company creates an advertisement campaign that goes viral, it makes the insurance company very happy. It’s a good way for the insurance company to get it’s name to a lot of potential customers, and to be seen in a positive light. Sometimes, however, this can completely backfire. It seems that one cannot always believe everything that you see on Facebook.
How many really well known advertisement campaigns can you think of? When it comes to commercials about insurance, there are a few that probably come to mind. You migh think of the Progressive commercials with Flo, or the Geico commercials with The Gekko. I’m not sure if those would be considered viral, though, but they are well known.
It turns out, however, that having a well known advertisement campaign doesn’t always bring an insurance company happy customers. An insurance company, that has yet to publicly identify itself, has been getting a lot of negative responses from the advertising campaign that they had on Facebook.
It started with a love story. Mark and Audrey were deeply in love with each other, but neither of their families approved of this match. This was because Mark was 23 years old, and Audrey was 47. So, they set up a Facebook page called “Calling out for Blessings – Spread to your friends.”, perhaps as a way to reach out for support for their “forbidden love”. Thousands of supporters appeared, returning frequently to the page to hear more about the story of the Mark and Audrey, and to watch videos of the couple.
The most recent video showed Mark getting into a car with his groomsmen, on the way to Mark and Audrey’s “big day”. In the parking lot, Mark suddenly remembers that he forgot something in his apartment, and gets out of the car to go retrieve it. Suddenly, there is the sound of screeching tires, which causes all of the groomsmen to get out of the car and check on Mark, leaving the camera behind.
The next thing that appears on the screen is a disclaimer. In short, it states that the story of Mark and Audrey was a fictionalized one, designed to make people aware of the uncertainties in life. One could assume that this meant that an insurance company was behind it, but so far, there hasn’t been any indication of which insurance company it was.
The insurance company is not identifying itself, perhaps due to the backlash it is receiving from so many people on Facebook. It seems that a whole lot of people who were fans of Mark and Audrey are very upset to learn that it was all just a series of commercials, and that Mark and Audrey were nothing more to each other than two hired actors, playing a role. The actors are also receiving negative feedback from people who were formerly their fans. In other words, this viral advertising campaign is, in the words of one of the former fans, the “Epic fail of the Year”.
Image Steven Depolo on Flickr