Aflac: Payroll Cancer Policies, a Central Park Quack and a Voice Recast

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Brothers John, Paul and William Amos founded the American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus in Georgia in November 1955 and signed 6,426 policyholders in the first year. In 1958 they pioneered cancer insurance, a supplemental product that pays cash directly to the policyholder rather than to hospitals. In 1964 they began selling through employers with payroll deductions, which made premiums nearly invisible to buyers. The company now says it covers more than 50 million people and is the largest insurer in Japan by individual policies in force, with over 19,000 sales agencies there and nearly 77,000 licensed associates in the U.S.

A General Accounting Office study found cancer policies paid back as little as 35% of premiums, while Aflac said its policies paid 62.4%, against New York's 82% requirement for most major medical coverage. New York banned standalone cancer policies, Aflac spent $175,000 on lobbying and contributions in 1997, and the state lifted the ban in 1998 for buyers with basic coverage. In December 1999 the Kaplan Thaler Group created the duck after an art director, muttering the name in Central Park, noticed it sounded like a quack. Gilbert Gottfried voiced the duck until March 14, 2011, when Aflac fired him over jokes about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. A public talent search picked Daniel McKeague, a sales manager from Hugo, Minnesota.

• Consumer Reports advised buyers to skip supplemental policies and put the money toward lower-deductible health insurance.
• The first ducks came from Metzer Farms, a hatchery in Gonzales, California.
• NASCAR commentator Benny Parsons introduced trivia by calling out cue the duck on NBC and TNT broadcasts from 2003 to 2006.
• Aflac has given over $100 million to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for childhood cancer care.
• Holiday plush ducks sold at Macy's since 2001 have raised over $3 million for local children's cancer centers.