Doing the Right Thing – Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual opts to make themselves look responsible rather than following everyone else into the cut-rate insurance premium advertising war.

Summary

Commercial opens at what looks like a train station with guitar music playing in the back ground. At the train station we see a gentleman remove an object out of the way of a blind woman. He does this silently and without being asked.

This one act of kindness is viewed by another person who in turn acts kindly to an opponent during a soccer game. As the commercial progresses, each act of kindness is view by another person who in turn acts kindly to someone else; creating a chain of events.

Narrator (at end of commercial): Everyday millions of people choose to do the right thing. There’s an insurance company that does that too. Liberty Mutual Insurance. Responsibility: What’s Your Policy?

Point of the Commercial

The whole base of this commercial is to “do the right thing”. In the field of insurance, this means to pay claims when they are legitimate and to not price gouge. But, they never tell you what they mean when they say this so you are left to assume their meaning.

The ending also puts an exclamation point on what they are trying to say when they add the tagline “Responsibility: What’s your policy?” Again, they are telling you that they are going to be a responsible insurance company for you, but they don’t tell you in what way.

Liberty Mutual is very much playing up on the current distrust that people have for big businesses right now with the current recession. They are making the point that they will be there for you to “do the right thing” and to act “responsibly” for you.

What the Insurance Company Wants You to Do

Naturally they want you to contact them for an insurance policy; but they don’t come out to encourage you to do so. This is a psychological move on their part to put the ball in your court and make you not feel like you are being pressured into contacting them for a quote.

They are telling you straight out that they will accept the responsibility of doing what is right by you if you had a policy with them. Then they let you think about what they just told you.

Right now this is a little bit of a gamble for them. With so many people looking for ways to cut corners and save money, they are instead trying to gain your trust in them as a corporation.

My Opinion

I am riding the fence with this one. I do like it, it is different and the company plays up on something other than how much money they can save you.  The commercial is also a nice reminder to those of us that live in this “me, me, me” world that one act of kindness can set off a whole chain of kindness.

But, I am still not liking that they are not specific in their claims of what they are going to be doing the right thing with.

I give it a thumbs up and a thumbs down.