If you’ve been watching the Olympics on NBC in the good ol’ US of A, then you have no doubt seen the series of commercials for John Hancock. You know, the ones that show overly dramatic situations that have some vague connection to financial freedom. My favorite of the bunch is the one where a newly separated husband and wife are talking in their kitchen about their problems. It is a vague snippet of their conversation, something about “it’s not about the money” and “(my girlfriend) wants me to move to California.” Basically, their marriage has crumbled and we are the lucky ones who get to eavesdrop on a truly heartbreaking moment. At the end, the wife is telling her (now) ex-husband that he needs to go tell their son what is going on. Yippee!
Every time this commercial comes on, I want to throw my television out the window and move far, far away from the United States. It makes me sick. This commercial uses extremely personal situations for the sake of selling insurance and investment advice. These rat bastards are using fear to sell their product and that makes them the basest of human beings. “If you don’t have a stable financial base, this crap could happen to you. Aren’t you scared? Wouldn’t that suck? Well, don’t worry, we at John Hancock are here to save the day.” Bullshit! Fuck you, John Hancock!
There, I feel better now. We now return to our regularly scheduled program. Thank you.
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