BY Malay Desai
From: Leo Burnett, Chicago
One of the American health insurer’s new campaign films features an obese couple breaking into spontaneous dance in their dining room when the song ‘Time of my life’ comes on the radio. The dance goes well until a few steps but at one point the woman runs in and throws herself on her partner, leading to a fall for both and a dining table crash. ‘There are thousands of ways into the complex healthcare system, and United Healthcare has ways to make this system simpler,’ the voiceover says, before the film cuts to the couple having an online appointment with their doctor.
Why we Like?
Keeping in with the musical mood that one very clever Amazon commercial has been setting this IPL season (‘Aur dikhao’, it was even called the best commercial in 20 years by an over-excited Mint columnist), here’s a film that’s an equally good earworm. The song’s a classic though, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’s 1987 chart-topper Time of My Life and the brand is of an insurer. Absurd? Not!
The American healthcare market is complicated, cluttered and for us here, confusing to say the least. With new ailments always outnumbering the medicinal cures available, the cycle keeps moving and UnitedHealth, currently No. 14 on Fortune’s 500 (US) list, I believe is a hefty beneficiary. The motive of this campaign is to sell the insurer’s services to average (read obese) Americans, break clutter and vouch for simplicity, and it does just that.
It might be a popular culture thing in the States, for couples to dance to the Dirty Dancing number and emulate Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in public, but our couple here choses their kitchen-dining room for their impromptu jig. With an entertaining start, the film keeps you interested and makes you wince when the 100-something kilogram wife attempts to do that Grey did in the romantic drama… and crashes.
With the fun factor and repeat viewing ensured, the message won’t take too long to drill itself in – the couple later on, thanks to a few clicks, is shown talking to a doctor on a video-conference. That’s a service we only avail of if our chacha is a doc, and this show-off works well. Virtual clinics, like many other value-added services in the pharma market, are picking up in the US (also ironically promoting laziness and hence, obesity) and United does well in just a minute to tap on to this trend.
Moreover, the campaign’s other films too feature common American men and women falling/getting smashed by stuff (it’s a huge audience for ‘funny home videos’ remember?) and winding up with a plug to the service.
(To watch this film,type‘bit.ly/ViewTubeApril27’in your browser)
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