AFLAC Duck Ads Grate On Japanese Viewers' Nerves
POSTED: 8:33 a.m. EDT May 8, 2003
ATLANTA -- He may be lovable in America -- but the Japanese may have a different opinion of the way the AFLAC duck quacks the company's name.
And so a new version is waddling out, just for Japan.
The duck is the center of the insurance company's ad campaign -- constantly quacking out "AFLAC!" to anyone within earshot.
Comedian Gilbert Gottfriend provides the voice now. But an AFLAC spokesman says in Japan, that version sounds just too abrasive -- and makes people feel they're being yelled at.
So the insurance company is giving the duck a kinder, gentler voice when it launches the Japanese ads. Japan makes up the lion's share of AFLAC's business.
The new ad, with the new duck voice, take flight there May 16.