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Norwich Union

Badvertising – Norwich Union’s Unexciting Name Change To Aviva

by Matthew Laidlow on January 15, 2009 1 Comment

At the moment the whole universe seems to have been affected by a few people in the banking world.

Subsequently some people are out of jobs, interest rates get cut and everyone ends up paying over the odds for everything.

So what would be the worst thing to possibly to do in a situation like this? Going bust is one thing but re-branding your company comes somewhere close. At a cost of redesigning logos and notifying customers, it all adds up. You’ll need to tell the humble public of the decision. You know, so people know who they’re actually insured with.

Norwich Union is now called Aviva for no particular reason and, instead of hiring out thirty seconds of TV advertising time to tell us this with a cost effective still, they had to go all glitzy and clever on us. Ringo Star, Alice Cooper, Dame Edna and Bruce Willis have all been drafted in to tell us that their careers would have gone tits up if they hadn’t changed from their original dull names.

Do we care? Not really, it’s more interesting to know how much Bruce Willis got paid to promote something he’s never heard of. In the case of Ringo Star, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had been christened Megatron 2000 With New Grilling Facilities. He’s always going to be known as the annoying twat out of The Beatles.

At the moment the whole universe seems to have been affected by a few people in the banking world. Subsequently some people are out of jobs, interest rates get cut and everyone ends up paying over the odds for everything. So what would be the worst thing to possibly to do in a situation like this? Going bust is one thing but re-branding your company comes somewhere close. At a cost of redesigning logos and notifying customers, it all adds up. You’ll need to tell the humble public of the decision. You know, so people know who they're actually insured with. Norwich Union is now called Aviva for no particular reason and, instead of hiring out thirty seconds of TV advertising time to tell us this with a cost effective still, they had to go all glitzy and clever on us. Ringo Star, Alice Cooper, Dame Edna and Bruce Willis have all been drafted in to tell us that their careers would have gone tits up if they hadn’t changed from their original dull names. Do we care? Not really, it’s more interesting to know how much Bruce Willis got paid to promote something he’s never heard of. In the case of Ringo Star, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had been christened Megatron 2000 With New Grilling Facilities. He’s always going to be known as the annoying twat out of The Beatles.