aflac

About AFLAC

AFLAC was founded by three brothers, John, Paul, and Bill Amos in 1955 in Columbus, Georgia. The company's corporate name was formerly American Family Life Assurance Company, but in 1990 the acronym was formally adopted as the legal name. The official name on the firm's Web site, and for legally selling insurance, is the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (not to be confused with American Family Insurance).

Aflac has three realms of operations: New York State, the rest of the United States, and Japan (where they still use the term "American Family" in its commercials).

At the end of 2004, the corporation's total assets were more than $59 billion. They offer insurance coverage for accidents/disabilities, cancer, short-term disabilities, hospital intensive care, hospital confinement indemnity, long-term care, hospital confinement sickness indemnity, long-term care, specified health event, life, vision, and dental. They cater mainly to businesses (specifically small business owners, for their employees), and the company's trademark is that these employee benefits and insurance policies come at no cost to the business owner whatsoever.

In 2005, the logo was changed to incorporate its famous duck, which features prominently in its advertising.

Aflac Duck

Aflac has become much more famous and well known in recent times with their famous Aflac duck commercials (with Gilbert Gottfried providing the voice) on television which started airing in December of 1999. The duck concept, as well as all of the commercials to date, were created by The Kaplan Thaler Group, an advertising agency based in New York City. Struggling to come up with a concept to make the big but relatively obscure insurance company's name memorable, art director Eric David stumbled upon the duck idea by walking around at lunchtime while uttering "Aflac, Aflac" and realizing how much it sounded like a duck quack. The Aflac duck character has now starred in many different commercials, due in part to the company's raised assets in the years since his introduction.

The effect is created through a combination of footage of real ducks, CGI effects, and life-like puppets for close-ups. Most commercials feature the people discussing the short-term disability insurance that Aflac provides but with the people unable to remember the name of the company and the duck "quacking" the company name to jog their memory. The duck also has an extremely explosive temper which leads him to angered outbursts that invariably backfire on him. Misfortunes befalling the Aflac duck include falling off the Grand Canyon, getting hit by a train, sliding off a snowy rooftop and right onto a snowman, getting placed on an intense roller coaster, and having a car fall on him.

There have also been some celebrities to star in the ads, such as Chevy Chase, Yogi Berra, Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump, and the United States Olympic synchronized swimming team. (Berra's ad takes place in a barber shop and features three new Yogiisms:

"It's the one you really need to have -- if you don't have it -- that's why you need it"

"If you get hurt and miss work, it won't hurt to miss work"

"They give you cash, which is just as good as money."

(Technically speaking, they were intentionally conceived as Yogiisms, and thus they aren't "true" yogiisms.)

The duck has even appeared in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, although instead of saying 'Aaaa-Flack!', it just says 'Aaaaa!' Aflac also did a commercial advertising both Aflac and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. On that commercial only is the voice revealed of the duck yelling "Aaaa-Flack!". The duck is in the scene where the stove falls on the boat. The Aflac duck also appears in commercials in Japan, though with a slightly different voice quacking "Aflac!". Many of the commercials also feature Earl Billings, who plays the recurring character at the end that gives the duck a baffled look.

Awards for diversity

Aflac was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine. 28% of Aflac executives are women. Of them, 24% are women of color.

In 2004, Aflac was named by Fortune magazine as the eighth most admired company in the life and health insurance sector in its annual listing of "America's Most Admired Companies."

External links

• Aflac