Nationwide Insurance's Super Bowl commercial has football fans everywhere feeling super-bummed out.
It features a little boy listing all of the life experiences he missed out on "because I died from an accident."
"The number one cause of childhood deaths is preventable accidents," the commercial states.
Is this a cheap effort by an insurance commercial to scare parents into buying a new policy?
Not necessarily.
Insurance companies make money two ways.* One, by collecting premiums on the insurance policies they sell. And two, by hoping they don't have to pay out too much to their policyholders.
This latter way is measured in the insurance industry by something called the loss ratio. It's simply the amount of premiums received that are paid out as claims.
You see, once an insurance company sells you insurance, they do not want you to make a claim.
Nationwide has a financial interest in making sure its policyholders don't have accidents. You could even argue that they're invested in you.
"Together, we can Make Safe Happen," they say.
It might be depressing. But its geniune message is about safety.
*A third way insurance companies make money is by investing all of the cash they get in the form of premiums.