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Korean men are outraged about a tongue-in-cheek TV commercial by Prudential Life Insurance featuring a merry widow. ¡°What wife can be happy with an insurance of W1 billion (US$1=W927) when her husband¡¯s just died?¡± one man complained. ¡°I hate the copy, since it suggests a new love affair between the widow and the insurance consultant,¡± another man said.
The TV commercial has aired since October and angry men have slammed it on the Internet. So what¡¯s to be angry about? In the ad, a young, beautiful widow gets W1 billion in insurance benefit and washes her car with her daughter in front of her suburban house. A good-looking insurance consultant visits and talks with her. ¡°He says everything was a promise to my husband. He¡¯s the family¡¯s life planner now.¡± The commercial ends with the woman and her daughter blowing soap bubbles after the man leaves, hinting that a new relationship has blossomed.
After seeing the commercial, a commercial bank staffer said, ¡°It feels weird to see a woman laugh with an insurance consultant when she should be mourning the death of her husband. I hope that doesn¡¯t happen to me.¡±
The commercial has broken a taboo by dealing directly with death and insurance benefits, a subject others delicately skirt. Prudential Life Insurance said it expected the commercial to cause some controversy but never imagined it would provoke such resentment. Still, it plans to air it until spring since it has concluded that the ad is hugely effective.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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