Insurance

Today I received a spam email from Woolworths. Bizarrely, it was an advertisement for insurance. Even more bizarrely, it was an advertisement for insurance of groceries.

Who are they trying to target here? There is a big income / lifestyle gap between the wealthy and the poor in South Africa, as is the case in most places throughout Africa, and the only people who could really afford to insure their stupid Woolworths groceries are the privileged ones.

But they wouldn't, because should their groceries be stolen (as this advertisement is suggesting) they can easily afford to buy more. And as for poorer people, they don't shop at Woolworths ever, and even if they did, these are people who don't even have enough money to pay for health insurance and are unlikely to want to insure their bread, milk and mielies.

I understand that it common for insurance companies to play on peoples' fears in order to sell their products, but to what point have we been pushed here that the insurers want us to start fearing the theft of our groceries out of our cars? Or maybe I've missed the point and they're making a statement about the rising cost of living in South Africa.

All around, this campaign is in poor taste and poorly thought out.

PS Woolworths, why in the whatshisname are you spamming me? Jerks.