denis distant: uncomfortable with insurer's scare angle

here's mr denis distant's letter which was published in the straits times last friday:

Uncomfortable with insurer's scare angle

Published on Sep 16, 2011

INSURER NTUC Income should reconsider its scare tactics behind its marketing campaign to push the VivoCare and Enhanced IncomeShield policies.

On Monday, a half-page advertisement in The Straits Times seemingly promoted a 'colon cancer sale' at $104,344 with an explanation in small print that is actually how much it could cost victims and then goes on to offer its policies at $1,868 as a solution to meet the cost. This dreaded disease should not be used as a sales gimmick.

and ntuc-income has responded:

Insurer explains rationale of ad campaign

Published on Sep 19, 2011

IT IS unfortunate that Mr Denis Distant arrived at his view relating to NTUC Income's advertisement ("Uncomfortable with insurer's scare angle"; last Friday).

In this context, we would like to highlight the rationale of this campaign. As a major group and health insurer in Singapore, NTUC Income took pains to research and better understand the major illnesses and disabilities affecting Singaporeans.

Based on publicly available data, diseases like heart attack, stroke, lung cancer, dengue fever, breast cancer and colon cancer significantly affect the quality of life of Singaporeans as well as their financial position. These occurrences result in the loss of income during rehabilitation and deplete savings.

NTUC Income thus undertook a more detailed analysis and developed this series of advertisements to inform the public. The aim was to show that these diseases could happen to anyone and that such a financial burden could be reduced through insurance plans such as Enhanced IncomeShield (Hospital & Surgical Plan) and VivoCare (a dread disease plan which covers conditions from the early to the advanced stages).

NTUC Income urges Singaporeans to understand the necessity of planning and providing for their long-term medical and financial needs.

We thank Mr Distant for giving us the opportunity to clarify our position.

Lee How Teck (Ms)
Senior Vice-President and General Manager
Group & Health Insurance Division
NTUC Income

my comments:

my opinion is that ntuc-income has embarked on a major publicity drive to pinpoint common critical illness affecting the general population and of course, the promotion of their enhanced incomeshield and vivocare products. and i sincerely believe ntuc-income's ads which i classify as infomercials were never intended to utilise what mr denis distant articulated as the 'scare angle'. a case in point is our government's drive to discourage smoking by first implementing text messages on cigarette packs. and to drive the message more explicited, graphic warnings with gory pictures were added in august 2004. in 2006, the images and warnings were revised with pictures focusing on damaged organs.

therefore, similar to the ongoing message to discourage smoking, ntuc-income's infomercials may be viewed to be a reminder and i quote ms lee how teck,

"Singaporeans to understand the necessity of planning and providing for their long-term medical and financial needs".