Last night I attended the ANZIF Annual Award dinner. ANZIF stands for Australian and New Zealand Institute of Finance and Insurance. The evening opened with a striking and moving video showing the Victoria Fires and the floods and cyclones we have experienced over the last year. It showed the moving images and videos of people that have lost not only homes and possessions, but loved ones. It was striking sitting at a black tie gala event, and the evening opens up with what can only be described as raw human tragedy.

The point of the video is that the insurance industry steps in when bad things happen, and I felt proud sitting there knowing that we played our part in getting people back on their feet after those events. It also made me wonder why people go uninsured, or underinsured, when the relative cost of being properly insured is low, compared to the suffering that ensues if you are not adequately covered.

A number of years ago NRMA had TV advertising that showed similar footage: Cyclones, fires, mayhem, destruction. I wonder if it worked. What was fascinating in an intellectual sense, is that our new business volumes spiked immediately after the Vic Fires and the floods. The more actual images showed on the news, the more new insurance clients we got. The news prompted people to act and get home insurance. That is one good thing that came from the tragedies, although it did not fix the problem.

I am fascinated by the horrific pictures on cigarette boxes. It is difficult to imagine someone still lighting up after taking out a cigarette from a box with horror images on it. It will be good to know whether the images work or not.

I found a worthwhile video about shock advertising. It shows some examples of shock advertising and discusses the ethics surrounding it. Should insurance companies employ more shock advertising? Should we show more footage of tragedy in our advertising, as opposed to talking about how much you can save or features and benefits?

The video clip shows advertising against Meth use in Montana in the US. The advertising is horrific. It is mini horror movies. But the stats are incredible. Montana went from #5 state in Meth use to #39 in 2 years. The advertising worked.

Is shock advertising the answer to Australia’s under- and un-insurance problem?

I wonder.

Here are two examples of the Montana Meth project: