Few language tools are more powerful than comedy.
And it's not just silly or hubris subjects that benefit from jokes and satire.
Serious subjects — including finances, healthcare and mortality — become more digestible with a healthy dollop of humor.
American Family Insurance acknowledged the power of comedy to reach its audience and share its message in 2013 when it launched "Stand Up for Family," hosted by comedian Bill Bellamy. The nationally televised show, taped in front of a live audience, featured several stand-up comics yukking it up with stories about family and everyday life, the insurance company's logo ever-present during comedian routines and show promotions.
"American Family Insurance feels it's important to celebrate families by reveling in the deep traditions of family-based stand-up comedy," Telisa Yancy, American Family Insurance's marketing vice president, said in a press release about the show. "'Stand Up For Family' is an occasion to share a good laugh and to celebrate the many reasons we all have to be thankful."
In that case, an insurance company become the catalyst for a comedy event. Continue on to see other instances, archived on YouTube, in which stand-up comics used jokes to illuminate common issues surrounding the insurance industry.
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Pun in the oven
This "Comedy Short" sponsored by Quote Hero, a company whose YouTube channel is stocked with insurance-themed stand-up jokes, was recorded earlier this year at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, California.
The Los Angeles-based comedy duo made up of Deven Green and Joel Bryant made light of various aspects of the insurance business with the help of such punchlines as "Actuary, it's not our thing!"
But the sketch may also reflect just how lost some consumers are when it comes to the language of insurance policies.
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Toogie talks public health care
The YouTube channel dubbed "Funny 4 Shizzle" spotlights African American comedians. This is where viewers can uncover a routine posted earlier this year featuring Pennsylvania comedian Toogie Jackson dishing about what it's like to access health care services without health insurance.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the number of Americans without health insurance has dropped to 24 million from 37 million, according to recent research from the New York City health policy think tank the Commonwealth Fund.
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