February 2, 2015

The dead-children ad that cast a pall over the Super Bowl.

65 comments:

MadisonMan said...

I didn't watch the Super Bowl. I don't want to watch an Ad made for the Super Bowl.

I laugh if I click an ad, and then an ad runs before the ad plays! Think about that -- you're watching an ad so you can watch an ad! Madness.

Big Mike said...

I didn't get this ad. I don't see that it made a case for getting life insurance for your kids. It might have worked as a public service ad against drunk driving or driving while texting.

tim in vermont said...

The Bryant Gumble Katie Couric ad was the best. What does that @ sign mean?

pm317 said...

@Big Mike, the ad was talking accidents. But yeah, it does not make sense - 'Don't get into accidents that could kill a child but get Nationwide insurance anyway.'

ron winkleheimer said...

@Big Mike

I don't think they were trying to sell life insurance for kids, I think they were trying to get people to start thinking about kid proofing their homes.

bleh said...

There were several terrible commercials last night. The "like a girl" one was similarly bad.

Hey, girls are no different from boys! Now buy this product for your bleeding vagina!

raf said...

Just imagine the outcry if the kid at the end had said he was aborted.

rehajm said...

I would have run it with Lynch, but I died

Best post game meme.

Scott said...

You should see the anti-smoking ads in New York City area TV, sponsored by city government. Mutilated people with tracheostomies wheezing and hacking through bad teeth, with surgical cross-sections of smokers lungs.

If they showed one of those as a Super Bowl ad, the response would not be pretty.

ron winkleheimer said...

@pm317

Some accidents are preventable. If you have small kids your thin screen tv should be mounted on a wall, not put on flimsy stand where it can easily topple on to small children running around and climbing on furniture. Small children should not be left unattended in a bathtub, even for just a second. And toxic cleaning supplies should not be left where a small child can gain access to them.

pm317 said...

I am ignorant about football. So please educate me ( I don't know if Althouse thinks I am hijacking thread). Why is that last minute play being called the worst coaching decisions -- if they are in the middle of the game/play, where is the coaching here?

rehajm said...

When child services comes for you after the accident, you'll need the insurance money to defend yourself.

pm317 said...

@Ralph Hyatt, yeah, all good points but what does Nationwide have to do with it?

Renee said...

People watch the Superbowl to 'get away' and enjoy some TV. I couldn't imagine if I just lost my child, and to distract yourself from the grief for an hour or two and that commercial came on.

Pretty upsetting.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Ad agencies getting us to believe that the ads are the best part of the Super Bowl is right up there with Satan getting us to believe that he doesn't exist.

Wince said...

Reminds me of what was left out of those Gerber Life insurance ads.

Exactly whose life was insured under those policies?

Was it insurance for the kid if the parent dies, or was it insurance that paid the parent if the kid dies?

ron winkleheimer said...

@pm317

My guess, they wanted some good PR, so they ran a PSA on their own dime during the Super Bowl.

MisterBuddwing said...

I am ignorant about football. So please educate me... Why is that last minute play being called the worst coaching decisions -- if they are in the middle of the game/play, where is the coaching here?

I'm no expert on football, but as Monday-morning quarterbacks from all over are making abundantly clear: Why pass on second down when you have three opportunities and a timeout to run the ball in from the one-yard line?

ron winkleheimer said...

"I'm no expert on football, but as Monday-morning quarterbacks from all over are making abundantly clear: Why pass on second down when you have three opportunities and a timeout to run the ball in from the one-yard line?"

Also, in a worst case scenario couldn't they have punted for three points and tied it?

I too am not an expert in football. I watch maybe 3 games a year when I am invited to some sort of football party.

pm317 said...
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Larry J said...

pm317 said...
I am ignorant about football. So please educate me ( I don't know if Althouse thinks I am hijacking thread). Why is that last minute play being called the worst coaching decisions -- if they are in the middle of the game/play, where is the coaching here?


Perhaps I misunderstand your question. The way I interpret your question, you're asking about who calls the plays during the game. During the game, the coach (or offensive coordinator) calls the plays. A quarterback can change the play by calling an audible if he sees something like a change in the defense that presents a threat or opportunity.

Some are calling this a very bad play call because they were on 2nd down and short yardage with one of the best running backs in the country. Joe Lombardi said that when you throw the ball, "three things can happen and two of them are bad." Getting intercepted is one of the bad things and it cost them the game.

bleh said...

"Also, in a worst case scenario couldn't they have punted for three points and tied it?

I too am not an expert in football. I watch maybe 3 games a year when I am invited to some sort of football party."

Huh?

A field goal is worth three points, but they were down four points. So they needed to score a touchdown.

Big Mike said...

@pm317, the coach calls the play on the sidelines and transmits it to the quarterback via a small receiver in the quarterback's helmet.

TRISTRAM said...

pm317:
I am ignorant about football. So please educate me... Why is that last minute play being called the worst coaching decisions -- if they are in the middle of the game/play, where is the coaching here?

The Quarterback has a microphone headset in his helmet. A coach on the sideline (usually the Head Coach or Offensive Coordinator) normally sends the play into the QB (though the QB often has options to change the play). The call for a pass was almost certainly from the sidelines. For the most part, QBs haven't called their own plays since the early 80's or even earlier.

ron winkleheimer said...

"A field goal is worth three points, but they were down four points. So they needed to score a touchdown."

Thanks, I couldn't remember what the score was at the end, like I said, I go to football parties.

Known Unknown said...

Get thee behind me, ad agency!

pm317 said...

Thanks, LarryJ. Yes, your explanation helps. So there was an audible instruction (from offensive coord?) to do what the player who passed did? That is the play call being blamed.

Original Mike said...

I do watch the Super Bowl for the ads (unless the Packers are in it). Last night's ads were probably the most mundane I've ever seen. There were only three I thought were of any note, "The First Draft Ever" for Mexican avocados, the Clash of Clans ad with Liam Neeson, and the Couric/Gumble ad. I took the dead kids ad to be a PSA for thinking about accident risks. I'm not sure I would have run it on the Super Bowl if I were them.

Beldar said...

Super Bowls, silly as they are, raise strong passions. Strong passions about one thing can make us vulnerable to influences we'd otherwise ignore.

Advertisers know that. Networks use that to charge more for that opportunity.

But it has risks, and I thought the Nationwide commercial in question — with the little boy who didn't grow up because of a preventable childhood accident, over which his (fictional but realistic) parents are supposed to feel forever guilty — was certainly immediately adjacent to the line between powerfully persuasive and offensively exploitational. For some viewer's tastes, it was probably across that line.

pm317 said...

Thanks everyone! Wow, they have it down to a science using technology, (not)!

Original Mike said...

Personally, I think they should require the quarterback to call the play.

William said...

The game was so good that it completely overshadowed the commercials. It was even better than Katy Perry.......I wasn't paying that much attention to the commercials. I got the vague sense that if you bought your kid a car, it's part of good parenting. I thought you only bought a new car to make yourself irresistible to women. I guess it depends on the make and model.

Renee said...

We always bought a policy for our children, if they were to die.


Why?

A small policy accrues interests which can pay for itself or a larger policy 25 years later when they marry.

Beldar said...

@ pm317: Legendary Texas football coach Darrell Royal summed this up very succinctly in the early 1960s: "Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad."

That's wisdom mostly forgotten in the pass-happy, pick-six happier NFL. But it's still wisdom, and even most NFL teams will usually follow it when an important game -- much less the Super Bowl -- is on the line.

Particularly given that Seattle's QB is more known for his talented improvisation than his passing accuracy, it was the boneheaded play call of the season, maybe of the 21st Century so far.

Brando said...

While with 20/20 hindsight it made more sense to try and run the ball in (especially since they had an extra timeout, and they were within a yard of the end zone) I don't think the pass play was itself such a bad call. Clearly, to pass under those circumstances would be unexpected, especially on 2nd down. The execution was the problem--Wilson should have thrown it away if one of his receivers wasn't wide open. But as a split second decision every now and then one of them will turn out poorly--sucks for the Seahawks that it had to happen for the most important play of the Super Bowl.

m stone said...

Conventional thinking tells us that if we do just enough, think just a little better, discipline ourselves, and teach our children sensibly, we can alter what will be.

Surely one child was saved last night by a quick-thinking parent who just watched the Nationwide ad.

If so, I stand corrected.

traditionalguy said...

Big fail. Even worse than the Seahawks' last play call.

The family lovey dovey feelings of a Company announcing they have a value system like yours is to build a brand's unconscious favorable reactions.

This brand is now hated.

Beldar said...

I ought qualify that further, and ought have said: "Even most NFL teams will usually follow this advice today when an important game -- much less the Super Bowl -- is on the line, at least when one is inside the opponent's five yard line, with ample time and downs left on the clock for your all-pro running back who's been pounding away successfully for the whole game, to make a couple of low-risk running attempts."

pm317 said...
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FullMoon said...

What do you say to those who might wonder if you threw the game intentionally?

pm317 said...

For some it was not hindsight -- they seem to have realized it as it happened. 'What on earth was Seattle thinking with worst play call in NFL history?'

FullMoon said...

The kid in the commercial was to old to drown in a bathtub or ingest poison taken from under the sink.

Of course, he may have seen one of those newsflashes ".. news at 11, the new way kids are getting high on household cleaning products!!!"

Original Mike said...

"While with 20/20 hindsight it made more sense to try and run the ball in (especially since they had an extra timeout, and they were within a yard of the end zone) I don't think the pass play was itself such a bad call."

I think an inside pass play was especially risky. If you want to pass, have Wilson roll out, or throw it to the corner.

traditionalguy said...

The comments seem to be on dead Seahawks. The Wilson magic that got them there would have worked. Russell should have run it in himself.

But the Falcons got their coach...their Defensive coach, that is.

drywilly said...

powerful ad, good strategy. left lasting impression of nationwide as a caring company. if you demand meaningless goody goody, there's flo.

Brian O'Connell said...

Nationwide has made children's health and safety a priority for some time. Several years ago they donated $50M to what is now called Nationwide Children's Hospital here in Columbus. They're not doing this to sell insurance. wiki

Old RPM Daddy said...

I wonder what the reaction would have been if Lynch did get the ball but got stuffed behind the line of scrimmage, or worse yet, fumbled? "Why didn't they call a pass play?" the pundits would cry. "New England was stacking the box. The 'Hawks should have known better!"

tim in vermont said...

Odds that Lynch would have scored based on his performance on the goal line this season? 49%

There was an 80% chance to stop him on each play, the odds that he would be stopped three times on three plays .8^3 or 51%, leaving him a 49% chance of scoring, excluding the possibility of a fumble or being thrown for a loss, or whatever, which were also possible.

Of course it is easy to criticize people who operate on probabilities, statistics, and expected outcomes when all you know is the result.

Plus it is fun being stupid and we all hate the Patriots!

Joe said...

Tacky as shit, whether aired during the Superbowl or not.

PatHMV said...

How many people actually get real help from their insurance agents on reducing risks on their property? I think when I last switched my homeowner's policy, some contract employee for the company MAY have done a drive-by inspection of the house, that's it. Nobody's provided any expert help on hazard reduction. Not sure if my previous insurer ever had anybody lay eyes on my house at all, before the tree fell on it during a hurricane.

So I just didn't get the ad or why it should encourage me to by insurance, or why I should buy it from Nationwide.

Perhaps as other commenters have suggested, they saw it as a PSA. But if that's the case, they should have added more of a call to action, specific steps for folks to take (beyond just visiting the Nationwide web site).

Big Mike said...

The Seahawks might have checked with Kurt Warner about throwing a quick slant with the ball on the one yard line and time running down. Perhaps the number of years that have passed since Super Bowl 33 dimmed the collective memories of the Seahawks' offensive coaching staff.

tim in vermont said...

Perhaps the number of years that have passed since Super Bowl 33 dimmed the collective memories of the Seahawks' offensive coaching staff.

I bet a lot of Super Bowls have been decided by picks when a team was in a position where they had to score a touchdown, do or die. Whenever that happens, I look for the pick, because not making a throw is often not an option. As I explained above, three runs for Lynch not the best option, and those odds don't count the idea that he very well could have been thrown for a loss. The Goal Line is different than the 40 yard line.

"Think like a fan, sit with the fans." Coaches can't afford to think like fans.

Larry J said...

pm317 said...
Thanks, LarryJ. Yes, your explanation helps. So there was an audible instruction (from offensive coord?) to do what the player who passed did? That is the play call being blamed.


As far as I know, that play call came in from the sideline, not an audible by the quarterback.

Larry J said...

drywilly said...
powerful ad, good strategy. left lasting impression of nationwide as a caring company. if you demand meaningless goody goody, there's flo.


Flo is annoying and I'd never buy insurance from Progressive, so the new commercial of what appears to be Ghingus Kahn, Queen Elizabeth I, and a crowd in Salem killing her was enjoyable.

Anthony said...

Didn't see the ad, except this morning. Whatever. It's just a commercial.

At the time Wilson threw it I said out loud "What are you DOING?" IIRC, the formation telegraphed "pass" anyway. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

At any rate, I've always maintained that, while it was indeed a bonehead call, individual plays don't win or lose games. If they'd scored more and/or allowed NE to score less, they wouldn't have needed that at the end anyway.

Anthony said...
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Anonymous said...

I think it was all about Marshawn Lynch. They didn't want him to get the glory for the winning touchdown.

Nothing else explains it.

They tried to say that because New England was expecting a running play, they wanted to fake them out and pass it.

Ok. If this is true, then why would you pass it over the middle, where all the defenders are, instead of into the corner of the end zone to one of your taller receivers where the only option is a catch, or nothing?

The coaching staff got cocky. Thought they had the game. Tried to screw over Marshawn, and made a terrible call.

n.n said...

I didn't know that Planned Parenthood et al advertised their services. It seems that they have as much of an affinity for publicity as a vampire does for sunlight. Even less as more Americans reject the faith in selective human value and the fairytale of spontaneous conception.

Michael said...

The call would have been brilliant if the receiver caught it, which he could have had it not been wrested from him by the rookie who made a fantastic pick.

Brando said...

Yeah in hindsight passing in the middle was excessively risky. Ideally a QB rollout to one side with a screen would have given Wilson the chance for an easy throw and if one wasn't available, run it right in. Or at least throw it away and still have two more tries.

I definitely wouldn't have run it up the middle if I were the Seahawks--that's exactly what the Patriots were expecting and they can stop the run. They might have lost yardage, and with under a minute in the game the clock management would have been a real problem. But the type of pass they went for--and going ahead with the throw into heavy coverage--was a needless risk.

At least for those of us with no dog in the fight (except my excessively smug Patriot fan friends!) it made for an exciting game.

FullMoon said...

Sometimes I amuse myself by playing with telemarketers.I have caller ID, so I know when it is a solicitor. Already today I have sidetracked two guys into talking about that final play. One guy cautiously elicited my feelings before he got involeved. The other guy knew a lot about football and was really pissed off, ha ha. He knew all the coaches names and reputations and had no problem describing his feelings with rather colorful language.

Anthony said...

This was the NFC's Year of Karma:

-- Detroit loses to Dallas on a controversial pass call
-- Dallas loses to Green Bay on a controversial pass call
-- Green Bay loses to Seattle on a last minute(s) coaching meltdown
-- Seattle loses to New England on a last minute coaching meltdown

Of course, New England also cheats so I'm already putting kind of an asterisk on this one.

tim in vermont said...

He was not "heavily covered" and the play was designed to pick the CB who made the interception. If that had happened, easy touchdown and 30 seconds of drama trying to keep Brady from getting in field goal range with two timeouts.

kzookitty said...

"The dead children ad that cast a pall over the Super Bowl."

I see what you did there!

Actually this ad helped me win our "how many times will they mention a dead child during the Super Bowl" drinking game.

kzookitty

Lnelson said...

Caught Rush on my car radio today for the first time in years. To paraphrase, he said the theme of the ads this year was to play on the guilt of the audience.