ARB hears complaint about Naked Insurance’s ‘lose wait’ campaign

A Naked Insurance advert that played on the words “wait loss” might be offensive to some, or even in poor taste, but it did not violate the Code of Advertising Practice, the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has decided.

A member of the public complained to the ARB about a series of Naked radio commercials with similar wording. One instance of the commercial said:

“Every day, millions of South Africans struggle with their wait… And did you know, the leading cause of wait-gain in the world today is… the insurance company call centre. But with Naked’s AI-powered wait-loss technology, you can buy insurance, claim, and manage your policy online – in seconds. And it’s all on the app, so you can say goodbye to the wait for good. Start your wait-loss journey now at Naked Insure. Lose wait. Get Naked.”

The complainant she found it “incredibly insensitive” for Naked to imply that losing weight is as easy as changing your insurance company.

“Weight loss is a very complicated and sensitive issue and hearing the ad brings my own body issue to the forefront every time. I struggle with an eating disorder, and I have had serious struggles with that in the last weeks because I keep hearing this awful ad,” the complainant said.

Although the complainant did not think Naked intended to cause harm, the advert was “completely tone deaf and very harmful”.

Naked asked the ARB to dismiss the complaint, saying the complainant appeared to have misunderstood the message of its Lose Wait campaign. It said none of the adverts in the campaign implied that changing your insurer is as easy as losing weight.

The insurer said the campaign was about removing the need to wait through the use of instant, online insurance. Naked’s app removes the waiting and frustration associated with traditional insurance providers. Clients can buy insurance online in minutes and make changes to their policy without having to wait to speak to a call centre.

Naked said the billboards that supplemented the radio adverts clarified that it was referring to “wait”, as in “waiting time”, not “weight”.

Time-saving, not weight loss

The ARB Directorate said the issue was whether the play on words referring to “wait loss” – meaning to gain back time spent waiting for insurance company call centre agents – rather than the literal definition of the homonym “weight loss”, may “offend against good taste or decency or be offensive to public or sectoral sensitivities”, as prohibited in clause 1 of section II of the Code of Advertising Practice.

The Directorate acknowledged that many people find it a challenge to lose weight, and people struggling with their weight must often deal with shaming by the media and society. In addition, these people might find light-hearted jokes about weight loss triggering.

“Weight loss is therefore perhaps not the ideal starting point for an advertising campaign, and the Directorate is sympathetic to the complainant’s expression of discomfort about this.”

However, taken as a whole, the various adverts in Naked’s campaign do not say that wait/weight loss is easy, but focus on the advantages to be gained by cutting call centre waiting times by using an app, the Directorate said.

In all versions of the radio campaign, the narrative hinges on an introductory statement such as “Millions of South Africans struggle with their wait…” But this is quickly followed by a clarifier that the commercial is dealing with “wait gain” caused by “the insurance company call centre”.

In addition, there are many actual weight-loss product adverts in the media and on social media, so the public is exposed to these frequently. Although Naked’s campaign may initially seem to be one of these, it quickly changes direction, and the listener should be able to follow that the angle is now about time-saving, rather than actual weight loss. The mere mention of weight/wait loss cannot in itself be regarded as offensive in terms of the Code, the Directorate said.

“While the campaign certainly might be offensive to some, and could be argued to be in poor taste, the Directorate is not persuaded that the situation amounts to one of serious, widespread or sectoral offence as required by the Code.”

The ARB is a self-regulatory entity funded by donations from marketers and advertisers. It administers the Code of Advertising Practice.

ARB members include the Association for Communication & Advertising, the Marketing Association of South Africa, the Association of Independent Publishers, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the South African Insurance Association.