Nationwide's 'Boy' commercial

This Nationwide Insurance Super Bowl ad packs an emotional punch while appealing for prevention of childhood injuries from accidents.

[sweetdeal]

I remember seeing this during the Super Bowl. At first, I was thinkin' man this kid is a real downer. Keep your head up, kid. You'll get there.
But then he dropped the "because I died"
And I was like.... oh.

[StudioSokki]

The whole country having a good party and this drops. Remember talking about this ad a great deal in a college commercial writing class.

[Lagmaster]

"If your kid dies, you'll get 50k"
-Nationwide

[wizardsuth]

Nationwide: We urge you to keep your kids safe -- so we don't have to pay for their funerals.

[kerrisullivan]

When this came on, my 8 year old son started crying so my husband said, "Nationwide makes my kids cry" I hate to laugh at something like this but omg lol

[grantsmith]

The amazing thing about this ad is that it was tested to death (sorry) and it did spectacularly well in testing. This was a huge investment for Nationwide and they tested this spot rigorously. And they got back excellent numbers to support their decision to put it on the Super Bowl. The problem was that the testing was out of context, it was never done in a high energy party atmosphere where the proceeding commercials were all funny. This spot might have done really well in a different environment but failed because everyone as so convinced by the testing data they forgot to think about when and where they were airing it.

[Supermariosupervideo]

That house looked like a robber just skimmed through and killed a kid in the process

[hydraloonie]

i remember watching the superbowl... then this ad played

[swissmediastuff]

He drowned, got poisoned and got smashed by a TV?
That's a tough kid!

[ekathe]

It gets really eerie when the music stalls on a dissonant note, and all you get is those slow zooms on the bathtub, the cabinet and the fallen tv. Then there's the ginger girl staring dead into your soul, scolding you telepathically for having let her die.

[makototachibana]

It's subtle, but when he says, 'i died from an accident, you see how he died in that shot.
The second story window on the building behind him is open.

[kesayo]

"Get our insurance. Because it would be a shame if something were to happen to your kid"

[nicholaszamir]

I remember this Super Bowl, as a Seahawks fan. "I would have ran Lynch, but I died."

[Angelmoon]

I was so confused watching this at first. Then the “Because I died” just hit me like a truck. This is awful.

[imaramblins]

Ad agency meeting room: "I know, let's HORRIFY their customers into buying their insurance."

Nationwide: "Seems legit."

[madisonthehammer]

I don't understand, how could nationwide have prevented any of those deaths?

[tgguitarguy]

0:26 Notice the window open behind him. Is the commercial suggesting that he fell out of that window and that's how he died?

[corner]

WTF. What the hell is wrong with Nationwide? Talk about a major buzzkill during the Super Bowl. 

[rakkatytam]

this commercial makes me laugh every time. Like it seems like something characters on a sitcom would make thinking it would hit big and then it just blows up in their face

[Slicedude]

Everyone talks about how depressing this commercial is but nobody talks about Optimus Prime being at a dead kid's wedding.