Bro-surance and Obama-care

Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman. Welcome to Late Night Critic.

I'm not much interested in talking politics. I try to stay out of those conversations when I can. Why? Well to start it's one of the Forbidden Three topics besides sex and religion. But mostly I just don't bring it up because someone always has a different opinion than the person next to them. However, I am going to slightly break that rule this week and discuss with my internet followers the new campaign in support of Obama-care.

I haven't followed the day-to-day debate surrounding Obama-care. But it is impossible not to notice the great divide between supporters and opposer's. While it is easy to find stories on those who challenge Obama-care (Forbes), the supporting factions have been slow to start up. Personally, I feel their website crashing during the first day of launch was a horrible way to start. That doesn't inspire faith in a new system. A program that says they pride themselves on ease of use, needs to work.

Above is one of the examples of the advertising campaign started in Colorado to rally the youth to sign up for insurance. I chose, what I feel, was the most tame of the print ads created for Obama-care (for the entire selection of advertisements just click the picture above!). The advertisements are attracting attention, but not of the most wholesome kind. The Huffington Post touches on the awkwardness of some of the images and slogans. Going as far as a woman stating it is easier to get birth control, thanks to her insurance, than getting a hot man between the sheets.

I will admit that the shock factor of an advertisement is important in drawing the initial attention of a consumer. Nonetheless, a government based insurance company such as Obama-care needs to be careful of the sorts of messages they are sending out. There have been enough sex scandals and too many politicians speaking wrongly of the pregnancy and the female body in general. Let's leave that stuff out of the advertising, yeah?

While the "Do You Got Insurance?" slogan is a play off of the old Got Milk? campaign, I feel like the connection isn't quite there. Many Americans took to Twitter to post their opinions of the ads, and they were mostly negative. Improper use of English was a major point, should our government be promoting "Brosurance" or "got" when we all know it should be "have"?

While I feel the advertisements weren't properly thought out before being released, I do think there are some positives to be found. For one, the advertisements utilize multiple forms of appeals to the general public. Most notably are the rational appeals, as most of the advertisements are based around the idea that we all need insurance. Basically the idea is "insurance is easy to get and crazy not to have, so why not get it?". There are also uses of emotional and humor appeals, along with a few appeals to sexuality. With the base use of logic, and then the added use of humor, emotion, or sex the advertising campaign is sort of like a one-two punch.

They also did a great job concentrating on the use of the "average Joe", just a typical person, being portrayed in every version of the campaign. This allows the general consumer to connect more easily to the situations being portrayed. The use of an "average Joe" coupled with the "Slice-of-Life" setting was another great combination for the Obama-care advertisers to use. With the "Slice-of-Life" setting and the "average Joe" being portrayed the consumer can truly connect to the every day situations being described. Which, if the slogans are properly created, will push the consumer to buy insurance.

This campaign works because they are consistent with their use of visuals and taglines throughout the whole series of ads. This is despite the differing situations and demographics every ad is aimed towards. They are simple, and yet consumers are still able to discover the selling point, to buy insurance. Through these few key methods of advertising Obama-care created an effective campaign. 

Obama-care's advertisements use some great traditional marketing techniques, but they went about them the wrong way. I think they may be discussed openly in groups of people, but they won't be received the way they were meant to be. Do you think they were spot on with this campaign? Or does Obama-care need to rethink and create a different more modest campaign? Your thoughts in the comments below!

Best Business Blunders

BP Oil Company

I figure since I'm breaking my "no politics" rule above I may as well continue the trend in BBB. So let's look at the BP Oil Spill of 2010!

Now we all now that BP majorly screwed the pooch, and have paid the fines. But what's interesting is their lack of remorse these days. Recently articles have been popping up about their reactions to the class-action lawsuit that is being decided on within the next few weeks. This lawsuit allows every single affected party of the spill to be included in one massive case, for the sake  of efficiency and ease of measurement, and will determine the total fine for damages BP will have to pay.
The problem here is, BP has taken to posting some of the parties requests that they feel shouldn't be involved in the class-action lawsuit. While they have been posting these specific requests for damages to be paid, they are also asking the government to reduce said fines. Now ask yourself this, if you were running a company that was behind the largest oil spill ever and caused major environmental destruction, would it seem fair to mock those who you have negatively impacted?
The good news is that their appeal failed. So BP Oil is just going to have to suck it up and pay the fines for their mistake. Below is a picture of the spill from space, and a happy turtle after being cleaned.

The lesson here is pretty obvious. Don't cause one of the worst man-made environmental disasters ever and a few short years later, act as if you are the victim. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Thank you for reading,

AO