After hitting the tree, whip out your iPhone and play games.

At the risk of becoming one of those people reading way too much into ads because they take issue with a particular theme, allow me to do just that. Out of any insurance spot I’ve seen, this new Nationwide commercial in particular annoys me the most. Reason being, a scenario similar happened to someone close recently, and I can tell you they had just about enough wherewithal to make it out of the car and call 911, let alone whip out a phone and play with a cool app to make the insurance claim process go smoothly.

Based on the crash photos in the spot, I doubt anyone would be coherent enough to do that either. Anyone at the shoot think to maybe have Kathy dial it down a notch considering the topic? Free advice: Unless you’re talking about a jerk at Home Depot tapping your bumper or hitting your door with minimal damage, lose the giddiness.

Based on data supplied from MTLBCAT*, Nationwide was likely thinking we hope you never need it, but IF you do, here’s a handy app for your phone. Which normally wouldn’t be a bad thing, but the underlying message there is obvious: Nothing says confidence in our customers’ driving ability like an app for the times we KNOW they’re going to have an accident.

Sweet. You guys just became the first insurer to develop an app based on actuarial tables. This is the big fail when it comes to On Star and this spot: Trivializing and/or exploiting the emotions of the moment immediate following a traumatic experience.

Agency actuarials from the planner likely indicated enough of their customers used iPhones so that this might be a good idea. What if I don’t have an iPhone though? Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. So if I’m one of the lucky unfew, will Nationwide send Life Star to the scene and take my info down? (By the way, even with an iPhone, this app would have been useless in the situation I referenced earlier.)

I wonder too if Nationwide’s bean counters told them that the only thing people are able to do after an accident is call the cops—if they can—and that most cell phones already take and store pics. I’m sure they have data too on how shaky someone’s hands are after an accident, even a minor one. (If they need me to, I can send them some. My brother-in-law works as an accident investigator for the police and oh, the stories those guys tell! Sweet, part 2!) People are just about able to use pen and paper, let alone be as coherent using a keypad as Ed Harris in the Abyss: “Senpp polipds heldpfd craspfg.”

But hey, nice cropped logo in the spots. Sure does keep it “real.”

*Make The Logo Bigger Client Actuarial Tables

Tags: Nationwide