Aflac

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AFLAC Incorporated

Type	Public (NYSE: AFL)
Founded	1955
Headquarters	Columbus, Georgia, USA
Key people	Daniel P. Amos, Chairman & CEO
Industry	Accident & Health Insurance
Products	Supplemental Health and Life Insurance
Revenue	$14.616 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$1.483 billion USD (2006)
Employees	4,368 (2006)
Website	www.aflac.com

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL, TYO: 8686 ) is an American insurance company that acts as a management company; overseeing the operations of its subsidiaries by providing management services and making capital available. It derives most of its revenue from supplemental health and life insurance.

1 Company history
2 Business description
3 Aflac Duck
4 Awards
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Company history

The company was founded by three brothers, John, Paul, and Bill Amos, in Columbus, Georgia in 1955 as the American Family Life Insurance Company (not to be confused with American Family Insurance). In 1964 the company’s corporate name was changed to American Family Life Assurance Company, and then in 1990 the acronym was formally adopted as the company's name. The company had 6,426 policyholders in 1956.

American Family Life pioneered cancer insurance in 1958. The company now offers several products including:

Life
Long-term care
Short-term disability

Beginning in 1964 the company decided to focus sales on worksite settings. By 2003, more than 98% of the company's policies in the United States were issued on a payroll-deduction basis, making the company the U.S. leader in that sales approach.

In 1973 American Family Life established a holding company, the American Family Corporation. The company's 1990 adoption of the "AFLAC" name set it apart from the many other insurance firms that include the word "American" in their names. (The official name on the firm's Web site, and for legally selling insurance, is "American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus".)

In 2005, the logo was changed to incorporate a duck character which is prominently featured in its advertising. In addition, the official spelling of the company name became "Aflac."

Aflac's old logo

[edit] Business description

Aflac operates in the United States and Japan (where the term "American Family" is still used in commercials).

Aflac's world headquarters and corporate offices are located in an 18-story tower east of downtown Columbus, Georgia.^[1]

At the end of 2006, the corporation's total assets were more than $59 billion, with more than 40 million policyholders worldwide.

For more than 50 years, Aflac products have given policyholders the opportunity to direct cash where it is needed most when a life-interrupting medical event causes financial challenges. Aflac is the number one provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States and the number one insurance company in terms of individual insurance policies in force in Japan. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL.

[edit] Aflac Duck

The Aflac brand has developed wide recognition in recent times with commercials starring the famous Aflac duck (with Gilbert Gottfried providing the voice) on television which started airing in December of 1999. The duck concept, as well as all of the commercials to date, were created by Tom Amico and Eric David, a creative team at The Kaplan Thaler Group, an advertising agency based in New York City. Struggling to come up with a concept to make the big but relatively obscure insurance company's name memorable, art director Eric David stumbled upon the duck idea by walking around Central Park at lunchtime while uttering "Aflac, Aflac" and realizing how much it sounded like a duck's quack. The Aflac duck character has now starred in many different commercials.

The Aflac duck

Jon Stewart mocks Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's name on The Daily Show.

The effect is created through a combination of footage of real ducks, CGI effects, and life-like puppets for close-ups. Most commercials feature the people discussing the short-term disability insurance that Aflac provides but with the people unable to remember the name of the company and the duck "quacking" the company name to jog their memory. The duck also has an explosive temper, which leads him to angered outbursts that invariably backfire on him. Misfortunes befalling the Aflac duck include falling into the Grand Canyon, getting hit by a train, sliding off a snowy rooftop and right onto a snowman, getting placed on an intense roller coaster, and having a car fall on him. In many commercials, it seems that there is only one person who actually notices the duck, a character played by Earl Billings. This character was in many of the earlier ads along with the duck. The character, however, has never spoken during the ads.

There have also been some celebrities to star in the ads, such as Chevy Chase, Yogi Berra, Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump, and the United States Olympic synchronized swimming team. Berra's ad takes place in a barber shop and features three new Yogiisms:

"It's the one you really need to have. If you don't have it -- that's why you need it"

"If you get hurt and miss work, it won't hurt to miss work"

"They give you cash, which is just as good as money."

(Technically speaking, they were intentionally conceived as Yogiisms, and thus they aren't "true" yogiisms.)

The duck has even appeared in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, although instead of saying 'Aaaa-Flack!', it just says 'Aaaaa!' Aflac also did a commercial advertising both Aflac and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." In the movie, the duck appears in the scene where the stove falls on the boat. The Aflac duck also appears in commercials in Japan, though with a slightly different voice quacking "Aflac!"

[edit] Awards

Aflac has been included in Fortune magazine's listing of America's Most Admired Companies for six consecutive years and in Fortune magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for nine consecutive years. Aflac has also been recognized three times by both Fortune magazine's listing of the Top 50 Employers for Minorities and Working Mother magazine's listing of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.