IN DEFENSE OF NATIONWIDE
Why Child Safety Should Not Be Off On Super Bowl Sunday 

The impassioned outcry over the Nationwide Insurance Super Bowl ad - which apparently dampened the spirits of the chicken wing eating, Bud-guzzling, Katy Perry ogling TV audience, has gone from excessive to infuriating.

The amped up rage has almost equaled the calls for Seahawks' Coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Russel Wilson to be publicly shamed in the town square (which I totally understand this being a sporting event). 

If you have not seen it (welcome back from Antarctica) the ad depicts a fair-haired suburban looking, white youngster. At first it seems that he is having  typical adolescent fantasies: riding his bike beside his dog, getting a sloppy, albeit unwanted, kiss from a "girl" on the school bus, and finally hang gliding  through the air. It ends with him saying words to the affect of: "I'll never be able to do these things because I'm dead." Then  woman's voice over talks about how accidents kill more children than almost anything else will.

Shame on Nationwide?

No! shame on the media bashing by the likes of (for openers) The morning news show trio -"Today Show," "Good Morning America," and "CBS This Morning." Oh what a downer! they all nodded and momentarily lost their Colgate smiles when discussing the "best and worst Super Bowl Ads." 

Sorry - for the buzz kill - but did you news folks see the NFL's ad on domestic violence? Didn't that ruin your Bud buzz just a bit? The one about the woman dialing 911 within earshot of her potential (or actual) abuser and pretending she is ordering a pizza? It ends with the 911 operator telling her that the police are on the way as the camera pans a room in disarray where perhaps a struggle or assault has occurred.  A well done ad. Albeit a weak NFL reaction to their own  issues of domestic violence and the broader issue of allowing ads in the Super Bowl and every other game that objectify and portray women in a stereotypical, often degrading manner.   

I have worked in PR and advertising for decades. I have also taught at such major institutions as the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications. And I have been in some of those rooms when people make decisions about what goes public in campaigns and commercials. I was not privy to what the Nationwide people were thinking in their rooms or what they really wanted the ad to achieve. But if  -- as they have said -- it was to "create a conversation" about the serious issue of accidental deaths among children, then that is not only acceptable, it is admirable. That "conversation" is a worthy one - every bit as much as the domestic violence one is. Even if for 48 seconds it dampens your Katy Perry "spectacular half time" thrill.  

In 2010 - the most recent statistics of deaths from children ages 0 - 19: Per 100,00, the number of deaths from "unintended injury" is 8,694. Many, if not most, of these deaths of young people were preventable.      

Homicide?: 2,808 per 100,000. Suicide?: 1,933. Both more widely covered by the news media. 

But to me, by far the most compelling statistic is how many times (or how few) the kings of TV morning news and their 24/7 counterparts have covered he issue of rates of accidental deaths of children over the past year.

Maybe they will after the furor of deflatgate and Bruce Jenner's "transition" settles down.

8,694 dead in 2010. Is it an accident that it is not a major news story?