When I was in grade school I often came down with “the flu” so as to avoid going to school. These aimless days generally revolved around watching a rather large amount of daytime television. Maury, Judge Judy, TMZ…I watched it all. However my definite favourite was The Price is Right.

Anyways, ranting about my television habits isn’t the aim of this blog. What does this have to do with marketing?

There was one ad that was always shown during The Price is Right. It was peddling life insurance. It went essentially like: “When you pass away, do you want to burden your family with your funeral expenses? Don’t cause them financial pain in addition to emotional pain…with reasonable monthly payments you can rest easy”.

Even as a young teen I could see just how much of a rip off this “life insurance” really was. By simply depositing each monthly payment you could surpass the life insurance policy in a few years. Who would possibly pay for such a thing?

The elderly. Who primarily watches The Price is Right? The elderly. They were broadcasting an ad which in my eyes attempted to guilt the target consumer into purchasing something for “peace of mind”.

My grandmother actually purchased one of these policies when she was in her 60s and made payments until her death at 82.

When my mother calculated the payout vs payments, she received approximately 10% of the money paid in. Taking into account inflation, and the amount of money she could have accrued in interest over 25 years the payout was absolutely pitiful. Ironically enough this money did not cover the funeral expenses…but the payments she made throughout her life would have covered it several times over.

Is the company creating this need through manipulative advertising, or simply capitalizing on a market that already exists?

Much like all ethics questions, there’s no real clear cut answer. But if there’s money to be made, I’m sure I’ll continue to see these ads in between Plinko games.