The Industry Needs A Pop Culture Hero!

In a speech I've delivered many times this year on “The Industry's Image & Its Impact On The Bottom Line,” one of the points I make is that insurance lacks a positive role model in pop culture to counteract the generally negative feelings dominating the public's perception. Unfortunately, the new TV series, “Leverage,” offers no respite for this reputationally-challenged business. (Meanwhile, do you recall the TV show featured above–the only one I can remember featuring an insurance “hero”? Read on to learn more.)

Indeed, the Dec. 8 edition of “TV Guide” says it all in a preview of “Leverage,” which debuted last night on TNT, before airing regularly on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

In its article, headlined “Hail To The Thieves,” the magazine notes that “uberstraitlaced Nathan Ford (played by Timothy Hutton) used to spend his life abiding by the law and tracking down bad guys as an investigator for an insurance company.”

WOW, I thought! At last!!! A TV show about someone in insurance….I should have known better, as the article went on to report that “when tragedy strikes and his own family needs help, the [insurance] company he's spent years working for turns its back on him, so Nathan switches sides.”

In the pilot, right off the bat we learn that after spending his professional life tracking down stolen art and identity thieves, among other crooks and frauds, the evil insurer (is there any other kind in pop culture?) that Nathan worked for denied coverage for a transplant that might have saved his son's life, because the procedure was deemed “experimental” treatment. (Well, I guess Jay Fishman, head of Travelers, is right not to buy coverage from his own carrier, after all!)

As a result of this heartless betrayal by his own claims department, Nathan turns into a “modern day Robin Hood,” according to TV Guide, assembling as his “Merry Men” a group of thieves he used to chase all around the world, to “take on the rich and corrupt” and “to fight for the everyday person.”

The biggest stretch in this premise is how easily Nathan manages to convince these not-so-common criminals to use their “talents” for good ends, rather than just their own selfish purposes, as well as how he manages to break the law without ever going to jail.

But my fundamental point remains that insurers–in the rare times they do appear in TV, movies or novels–are always the bad guys! Is this life imitating art, or just lazy, stereotypical writing? Is the best this industry can hope for on the pop culture scene the sour cavemen and silly gecko of GEICO fame?

Depsite widespread incidents of police brutality, medical malpractive and ambulance-chasing attorneys, there are dozens of police, medical and legal dramas showing cops, doctors and lawyers saving the lives and fortunes of defenseless victims. But there are no “McDreamy”-like, sexy, saintly insurance characters portrayed in any TV show or film.

In fact, the last pop icon from the world of insurance was Longstreet–a BLIND insurance investigator played by James Franciscus that ran on ABC for only 23 episodes from September 1971 until spring 1972. (His picture tops this blog entry, to jar your memory.)

As long as insurers are dismissed as insensitive scoundrels in pop culture, it will be that much harder for the industry to burnish its badly tarnished reputation.

Perhaps carriers should fight fire with fire. Why not back a new drama, “Master Of Disaster,” about a dynamic insurance adjuster who braves the horrors of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other catastrophes to make policyholders whole again? Or maybe it's time for a remake of Longstreet, who is helped by all sorts of cool, high-tech gadgets to expose the thousands of policyholders filing false claims every year.

Or maybe we need another “Leverage” type of gang, featuring savvy and sassy investigators who pretend to be crooks, only to con the REAL insurance frauds into showing their hand, slapping on the handcuffs exactly five minutes before the hour each night it airs?

What kinds of TV shows or movies could feature insurers in a positive setting?

Meanwhile, in case you're interested in my review, the pilot was slick and entertaining, even though the plot was preposterous. The premise derivative–and done much better in films like “Oceans Eleven” and USA-TV's “Burn Notice.” And the characters were cartoonish. But I am interested enough to check out the second episode, now on my DVR.

Have any of you seen the show? What did you folks think of it?