The Hartford – AARP Grandma Commercial

The Hartford teams up with AARP to help Grandma through the trauma of a car accident.

Summary

Commercial opens on a rainy night with a damaged car in what we assume is a body shop. A woman is holding a box and a man is talking to her as a taxi pulls up behind them.

The Hartford Claims Specialist: So I’ve arranged for a rental car to be dropped off at your house. You sure you got everything out of your car.

Woman: I think so.

The Hartford Claims Specialist: Let’s get you home.

Announcer: Why do drivers fifty and over switch to The Hartford, the only auto insurance program endorsed by AARP? More than savings and benefits.

Woman is at home going through her box, looking specifically for a CD case from her granddaughter. She finds that the CD is not in the case and is visibly upset.

Announcer: We handle the problems you’d expect and the ones you never knew you had.

Woman goes out to the rental the next morning and finds her missing CD in her rental car.

Woman (shown on phone): You don’t know how much this means to me. I’m serious, thank you.

The Hartford Claims Specialist (shown on phone): It’s my pleasure

Commercial closes with The Hartford contact information screen.

Announcer: The AARP auto insurance program from The Hartford.

Point of the Commercial

The point of the commercial is to make you feel that The Hartford will have you, their client, in their best interest. That they will be there with you every step of the way and help you get through any car accident you may be in.

Just like they directly say in their commercial, they want you to think that they will be there to do everything that you expect (fix your car and provide a rental). Also that they will be there to take care of the little things that you don’t expect to come up during the claims process.

As the target audience is seniors, this is important. With of all the bad things going on right now with the economy and corporation scandals draining their retirements, they need something to depend on.

What They Want you to Do

The Hartford has three things going for them in this commercial. One, they evoke emotion during the course of the commercial. Emotional purchases can be dangerous for your budget because emotion takes over your rational thinking.

Two, The Hartford is a solid insurance company that has been around for a long time and most seniors know of them. This gives a feeling of something being solid and consistent in a world that is in upheaval.

Three, they are partnering with AARP. Everyone that receives mail, watches TV, listens to the radio or uses the internet knows about AARP and the benefits that they offer to seniors.

The Hartford wants your trust and is hoping that it will lead to you contacting them for a quote.

My Opinion

I am of two minds about this commercial. As I have been in insurance and have been in several car accidents, I know that the process doesn’t work like they show in the commercial. There is no insurance professional there to hold your hand through the process (in person). Rental cars don’t show up in driveways and you only get one if you purchased insurance coverage for it.

But, I still get that warm and fuzzy feeling about The Hartford that they trying to invoke in the viewer. I am pretty sure that is connected to the fact that they took good care of grandma and most of us are softies when it comes to grandma.

I give it a thumbs up.